AI Startup Humans& Raises Record $480M Seed Round
Three-month-old AI startup Humans& raised a $480 million seed round at a $4.48 billion valuation, despite having no product. The funding is one of the largest seed rounds in history, reflecting a venture capital trend of making large, conviction-based bets on talent and technical ambition in the AI sector, often ahead of traditional market metrics.
- The founding team includes former researchers and leaders from top AI labs such as Anthropic, xAI, Google, OpenAI, and Meta. CEO Eric Zelikman was previously at xAI, and the co-founding group includes Andi Peng from Anthropic and early Google employee Georges Harik. - Backing for the massive seed round came from prominent names in the tech industry, including Google Ventures, Nvidia, and Jeff Bezos. The round was led by venture capital firm SV Angel and co-founder Georges Harik. - The company's stated mission is to build "human-centric" AI that complements and connects workers rather than replacing them. Their focus is on developing AI models designed for collaboration, coordination, and social intelligence, aiming to improve how people work together within organizations. - While details are scarce, the startup plans to release its first product later this year. The technology will reportedly be trained to be more interactive and inquisitive than current AI, using techniques like multi-agent reinforcement learning to handle group decision-making. - This funding round is one of the largest seed rounds in history, surpassed by Thinking Machines Lab's $2 billion seed round in 2025. The trend of large, pre-product seed rounds for AI companies with strong founding teams has become more common, with investors prioritizing talent and technical vision. - The company is entering a competitive landscape, with major players like Google, Anthropic, and OpenAI also developing AI solutions for team collaboration and workflow automation. For example, Anthropic is developing "Claude Cowork" to optimize team collaboration.
