AI Startup 'Humans&' Raises $480M Seed Round
AI startup Humans&, founded by former researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, and Meta, has raised a $480 million seed round at a $4.48 billion valuation. The three-month-old company secured one of the largest seed rounds in venture history without a public product, highlighting intense investor appetite for teams with elite AI talent. The funding reflects a broader trend of investors prioritizing AI startups with clear use cases and scalable technology.
- This financing round stands as the second-largest seed investment in the history of venture capital. - The company's stated goal is to create "human-centric" AI designed to augment and empower human workers, rather than replace them. - A notable list of investors participated in the round, including Nvidia, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Google Ventures, and SV Angel. - The five co-founders are Eric Zelikman, Andi Peng, Georges Harik, Yuchen He, and Noah Goodman, who bring experience from organizations like xAI, Anthropic, Google, and Stanford University. - Humans& intends to build AI that is optimized for collaboration and coordination among users, distinguishing it from models focused on conversational answers. - The startup's technical focus is on developing innovations in multi-agent reinforcement learning, memory, and long-horizon planning. - With a team of approximately 20 employees, Humans& is planning to release its first product to the public later this year.
