Imagine a world where split-second decisions, the kind that can change the course of a game or save lives, are no longer based on guesswork. That's the promise of The Intelligent Search Company (TISC), which has just burst onto the scene with a hefty $2.1 million pre-seed round. Their mission? To equip decision-makers and AI agents with lightning-fast access to critical insights, right when they need them most. But how are they doing it? Let's dive in.
This funding, co-led by OVO Fund and n49p with participation from Panache Ventures, will fuel the expansion of TISC's AI platform. The core of their technology lies in its ability to extract the most relevant information from fragmented and rapidly changing data streams. Think of it as a super-powered search engine, but one that understands the context and urgency of the situation. This technology has the potential to revolutionize industries like sports, emergency response, and even defense.
Founded in May 2024 by CEO Arpan Bhattacharya and COO Mahbod (Moe) Sabbaghi, TISC has already made significant strides. They've built their core technology, assembled a team including a founding machine learning researcher, and begun early deployments with professional and collegiate sports organizations. Their system has already assisted the national basketball team of a Caribbean nation, delivered insights during NCAA Division I basketball games, and is being used by the Women’s Premier Basketball Association (WPBA). They are now expanding pilot programs and seeking new partnerships in high-stakes markets.
But here's where it gets interesting: TISC isn't just another search engine. Unlike traditional systems that rely on slow, query-driven searches, TISC employs a world model architecture. This innovative approach learns which information is valuable, when to retrieve it, and how to combine it, delivering context almost instantly. By processing various inputs like text, video, and sensor data, TISC cuts down on unnecessary follow-up questions, speeding up the decision-making process. This is a game changer.
Their applications are diverse. TISC is being used for real-time play-calling and in-game analysis in sports, emergency response routing, and command decision support for defense operations. The company positions its platform as the retrieval layer, providing human teams and AI agents with the domain expertise needed for rapid action.
The WPBA is particularly enthusiastic. They plan to integrate TISC's platform as a cornerstone of their tech-forward competitive strategy. Starting in 2026, the league will introduce an AI assistant coach powered by TISC. This AI will be able to answer natural language questions, providing instant access to clips, scouting insights, and live trends. They will also centralize film and scouting materials for WNBA scouts, replacing manual workflows with unified search. This is a bold move, and a sign of things to come.
With the infrastructure in place to support new partners, TISC is focused on expanding its presence in professional and collegiate sports while cultivating relationships in emergency services, defense, and other data-intensive markets. They are offering private demos to organizations interested in evaluating their technology.
Key Takeaways from the Founders:
- Arpan Bhattacharya, CEO, The Intelligent Search Company (TISC): "TISC exists because the most important, time-constrained decisions that impact human lives are still being made on hunches or rigid playbooks even though the data to guide those calls already exists. In real time, our technology finds the right needles in every kind of data haystack and puts them in front of people or makes them accessible to AI agents using our API. Think of it as AI with intuition. It understands intent, predicts deception, and prescribes counter moves, from play calling in sports to military command and control."
- Mahbod (Moe) Sabbaghi, COO, The Intelligent Search Company (TISC): "Coaches, medics, and commanders are swimming in data while the clock is running. Software should feel fast and fluent in the domain, not like a slow, generic tool that forces people to think in keywords. We are building the retrieval layer that lets humans and AI act with speed and confidence."
- Gianfranco Filice, Partner, OVO Fund: "While I had felt that search was a solved problem, the team at TISC convinced me otherwise. From TISC’s perspective, search today forces users to adapt their language and mental models to the designer of the system, leaving the long tail of “intent” unexplored and underutilized. This is a critical market inefficiency that TISC is addressing to bring the rest of the world closer to the products, experiences, and outcomes they are looking for."
- Alex Norman, Managing Partner, n49p: "Arpan and Moe are executing on a compelling vision that bridges cutting-edge research with practical deployment. The team has category-defining ambition, and technology that will enable any human or AI to find exactly what it’s looking for from any source or data stream, no matter how fragmented or complex that data is or how abstract the search query is."
- Faatimah A., CEO and Founder, Women’s Premier Basketball Association (WPBA): "The future of sports lies at the intersection of athletic performance and technology. What TISC is building directly supports that vision, helping us elevate the WPBA ecosystem and empower our athletes with the tools, data, and development resources to reach elite levels of performance, whether in the WNBA or on international stages." "We aim to be a premier developmental league for top female athletes and believe the future of women’s sports is AI-powered. TISC points to where the game is headed and how coaches and leagues will compete."
Controversy & Comment Hooks: TISC's approach is ambitious, but will it truly revolutionize decision-making in high-stakes environments? Some might argue that relying too heavily on AI could lead to a loss of human intuition and critical thinking. What do you think? Do you see the potential for this technology to change the way we make decisions, or are there potential downsides? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
