SF AI Startups Secure Seed, Growth Rounds
Adapt, a startup building an "AI computer for business," has raised $10 million in seed funding for its workflow automation platform. Separately, Merge Labs, which focuses on scalable AI backends, secured an investment led by OpenAI at an $850 million valuation.
- Adapt's $10 million seed round was co-led by Activant Capital and Headline, with participation from Susa Ventures. The platform is designed to integrate with existing business systems like HubSpot, Google Workspace, and Slack, allowing users to interact with their data and automate workflows using natural language within their chat applications. - The company aims to create a "horizontal AI platform" that works across an entire organization, rather than siloed AI tools for specific departments. This addresses the challenge of fragmented data and systems within a company, allowing for more comprehensive analysis and automation. - Adapt has released two new features alongside its funding announcement: "Adapt Apps" and "Proactive Automation." Adapt Apps allow users to create persistent graphical user interfaces from AI-generated outputs, while Proactive Automation enables the system to monitor data in the background and take action without being prompted. - Merge Labs' investment from OpenAI is part of a larger $252 million seed round that also included Bain Capital and Valve's Gabe Newell. The company, co-founded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, is focused on developing non-invasive brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). - In contrast to competitors like Elon Musk's Neuralink, which requires surgical implants, Merge Labs is pursuing a non-invasive approach using molecules and ultrasound to interact with neurons. This could make the technology more accessible and appealing to a wider range of users. - The scientific foundation for Merge Labs' technology comes from the work of co-founders like Mikhail Shapiro, a biomolecular engineer from Caltech known for his research in using ultrasound for neural interaction. The company originated from a nonprofit research organization called Forest Neurotech. - OpenAI's interest in Merge Labs stems from the belief that BCIs represent a new frontier for human-computer interaction, allowing for a more natural and seamless way for people to interact with AI. OpenAI plans to collaborate with Merge Labs by providing custom foundation models and AI operating systems to help interpret brain signals.
