The archive · AI & Models · Product decision · 2022–2026
Mindverse bets your AI should be a local copy of you; Second Me hits 13k stars
Mindverse's Second Me trains a local AI copy of you; 10k GitHub stars in 3 weeks, then a Meituan-led Series A and a social network.
Mindverse
What the business is
Mindverse builds Second Me, an open-source (Apache 2.0) 'AI doppelganger': users train a personalized LLM on their own data with hierarchical memory modeling, run it locally for privacy, and connect those AI identities in a social network where they meet before humans do.
Starting capital：$29.9M raised by end-Q2 2025 (ROSS Index: Square Peg, Hongshan, K2VC, Linear, Plug and Play Tech Center, HSG); a Meituan-led Series A announced 2026-06-02 brought cumulative funding to roughly $50M.
How it started
Mindverse was founded in 2022 in Singapore and worked on 'large personalization models' before open-sourcing Second Me in early 2025. The repo's manifesto frames it as a challenge to centralized 'Super AI': a locally trained AI self that preserves you, delivers your context, and defends your interests, running on your own hardware.
What happened
Second Me went from release to 10,000+ GitHub stars in under three weeks and 12.8K stars by end-Q2 2025, putting Mindverse on ROSS's fastest-growing open-source startups list. On 2025-12-03 Mindverse launched Second Me as a public social network where AI identities — each tied to a real human — explore conversations before the people join. On 2026-06-02 a Meituan-led Series A brought cumulative funding to roughly $50M.
How it ended up
Still scaling: as of 2026-09-02 Second Me is public and expanding from a local 'doppelganger' into an AI identity network, backed by roughly $50M in cumulative funding.
Background
Mindverse's bet is that the next AI layer is not a better assistant but a better model of you. Second Me, open-sourced in early 2025, lets users train a personalized LLM on their own memories using Hierarchical Memory Modeling and a Me-Alignment Algorithm, then run it locally. The manifesto argues this inverts OpenAI's 'Super AI' direction: AI that amplifies the individual instead of erasing them.
The wedge was memory inside the model, not a vector database bolted on. By parameterizing a user's identity, context, and conversational style into model weights, Second Me could answer as its user, from their perspective — and local training made the privacy claim checkable. The market responded instantly: 10,000+ GitHub stars in under three weeks, 12.8K by end-Q2 2025, and a slot on ROSS's fastest-growing open-source startups list.
The company then stretched the wedge into a network. On 2025-12-03 Mindverse launched Second Me as a public social platform where AI identities tied to real humans explore conversations before people join in. On 2026-06-02 a Meituan-led Series A brought cumulative funding to roughly $50M, backing expansion from local doppelganger to identity infrastructure.
What has to be true
- Local training made the privacy promise verifiable rather than aspirational, which open-source developers could audit.
- Parameterized memory (memories in model weights) differed sharply from RAG-style memory competitors and matched the 'second self' narrative.
- Open sourcing first created a proof point — 10K stars in three weeks — before the company asked for a $30M+ valuation.
- The pivot from tool to identity network converted a personalization feature into a social graph with no bots by design.
What can be applied
A privacy-first twist can flip the assistant paradigm: sell an AI that only knows you, not one that knows everyone — local training makes the promise real and open source lets users verify it.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02 Second Me remains Apache 2.0 open source with roughly 15.6K GitHub stars (star-history, 2026-06-19). The public social network launched 2025-12-03 is live, and the Meituan-led Series A announced 2026-06-02 funds expansion. The repo's roadmap calls for versioned memory, continuous training pipelines, and cloud deployment options on top of the local-first core.
Sources
- Top trending open-source startups in Q2 2025 (ROSS Index)
- Second Me: Social Network Built for AI Era
- Mindverse完成A轮融资，美团领投
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