Inside Corti AI’s Multi-Market Strategy: Why They Chose US Expansion Over European Home Ground

When European startups expand internationally, conventional wisdom suggests starting with nearby markets. But in a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Andreas Cleve from Corti AI revealed why they took a different approach, prioritizing the US market despite their European roots.

The Language-First Strategy

“Our customer base today is mostly in the US. And that’s deliberately because we are a language company,” Andreas explains. As an AI company focused on understanding medical conversations, their expansion strategy started with a fundamental question: Where could they find the most robust language data?

Market Selection Framework

The decision wasn’t just about market size. As Andreas explains, “Our AI needs to understand what’s said and shared. So we had to pick a language that we knew there would be a lot of language resources on.” This insight led them to prioritize English-speaking markets, with the US offering the largest pool of healthcare conversation data.

Beyond Language Data

But their strategy went deeper than just language resources. They needed to ensure they had enough data in their specific niche – healthcare conversations. As Andreas notes, “We needed to make sure that the unique kind of dialogue we’re in, which is very different than the podcast audio we’re in, that there was enough data on it.”

This focus has paid off. Today, “80 85% of our customers today are US based,” Andreas shares, demonstrating the success of their targeted approach.

Navigating Regulatory Landscapes

Interestingly, their US-first strategy wasn’t hindered by regulatory concerns. While many assume European healthcare regulations are more stringent, Andreas offers a different perspective: “Specifically for the US, I think it’s actually not as cumbersome as you might think compared to Europe.”

He notes that Europe’s ambition to lead in AI regulation has actually created additional complexity: “I think one of the things we’ve decided from a European perspective out of Brussels is that we’re going to try to be a thought leader on especially AI, but also health AI and critical AI legislation.”

Building Multi-Market Capabilities

Rather than limiting themselves to a single market, Corti developed capabilities to serve multiple regions. “We cherry picked six more languages,” Andreas explains, showing how their initial focus on English created a foundation for broader expansion.

This methodical approach to language expansion reflects their overall strategy: start where you can build the strongest foundation, then expand strategically based on data availability and market opportunity.

The Enterprise Sales Advantage

Their US focus also aligned with their enterprise sales strategy. Working with “entire governments” and major healthcare systems required them to be present in markets with large, centralized healthcare organizations. The US healthcare market, despite its complexity, offered numerous enterprise-scale opportunities.

Looking Ahead

Corti’s geographic expansion continues to follow this data-driven approach. Andreas hints at upcoming announcements “in Southeast Asia,” suggesting their strategy of prioritizing markets based on language resources and healthcare system scale remains consistent.

For B2B founders considering international expansion, Corti’s experience offers valuable lessons. Instead of following conventional geographic expansion patterns, they built their strategy around their core technical requirements and data needs. This focused approach helped them build strong foundations in their primary market before expanding more broadly.

The key insight? In AI and healthcare, successful market expansion isn’t just about geographic proximity or market size – it’s about finding the right conditions to build and validate your core technology. Sometimes the best path to global success starts with a laser focus on the market that best supports your fundamental capabilities.