Venture Capital: Character.AI, The Firm That Creates A Personalized AI Companion For You, Nabs $150M
The Series A round was led by Andreessen Horowitz.
Character.AI, a Silicon Valley chatbot startup, has raised $150 million in a new funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, valuing the company at $1 billion.
The two former Google engineers who founded the company launched an early version of its software in September 2022. It allows users to create and interact with chatbots that role-play as characters or famous people like Elon Musk and Vladimir Putin.
Character.AI has 22 employees and gets nearly 100 million visitors a month to its website, but does not currently generate revenue. Users have created over 2.7 million characters and sent more than two million messages since launch.
The firm simultaneously launched a preview of its C1.2 model, which is an advancement on its C1.1 model. “C1.2-powered Characters can help draft emails, assist with test prep by being a study buddy, brainstorm ideas and much more,” the firm said. (Businesswire)
The company plans to use the new funds to hire more engineers and expand its chatbots’ capabilities, including an advanced chatbot model to help people draft emails or study for tests.
The investment from Andreessen Horowitz, one of the most storied tech investors in Silicon Valley, marks a significant step for Character.AI.
Dozens of AI startups are now billion-dollar unicorns, including OpenAI, which released its highly populat chatbot, ChatGPT, in November 2022.
Related Story: OpenAI Launches ChatGPT, A New Conversational AI System
Image by Skypeak Limits from Pixabay (Text Added)
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