AI Search Startup Glean Secures $260 Million in Funding, Doubles Valuation to $4.6 Billion

AI Search Startup Glean Announces New Funding at $4.6 Billion Valuation

(Reuters) - Enterprise AI search firm Glean raised over $260 million in a new funding round, doubling its valuation to $4.6 billion, as investor interest in startups that deploy artificial intelligence-powered services continues to grow. The Series E funding round, led by Altimeter and DST Global, has boosted Glean's valuation from its previous $2.2 billion in February. The company uses conversational AI assistants and large language models like OpenAI's GPT, which powers ChatGPT, to generate personalized answers to queries based on a company's internal data. Founded in 2019 by former Google employees, Glean counts Reddit, Pinterest, Databricks, and others among its customers. The company also announced new features that allow users to create "multi-step" prompts using natural language to remove the necessity for coding skills or prompt engineering. Co-founder and CEO Arvind Jain, who also co-founded data management startup Rubrik, said in February the company plans to increase hiring. (Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)

AI search startup Glean announces new funding at $4.6 bln valuation

Sept 10 (Reuters) - Enterprise AI search firm Glean raised over $260 million in a new funding round, doubling its valuation to $4.6 billion, as investor interest in startups that deploy artificial intelligence-powered services continues to grow. The Series E funding round, led by Altimeter and DST Global, has boosted Glean's valuation from its previous $2.2 billion in February. The company uses conversational AI assistants and large language models like OpenAI's GPT, which powers ChatGPT, to generate personalized answers to queries based on a company's internal data. Founded in 2019 by former Google employees, Glean counts Reddit (RDDT.N), opens new tab, Pinterest (PINS.N), opens new tab, Databricks, and others among its customers. The company also announced new features that allow users to create "multi-step" prompts using natural language to remove the necessity for coding skills or prompt engineering. Co-founder and CEO Arvind Jain, who also co-founded data management startup Rubrik, said in February the company plans to increase hiring. Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles., opens new tab

AI-powered search startup Glean doubles valuation in new funding round led by Altimeter

Arvind Jain, CEO Glean, on SaaS Monster stage during day one of Web Summit 2022 at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. AI-powered search startup Glean said Tuesday it has raised $260 million in a funding round that values the tech company at $4.6 billion -- more than double its last reported valuation. The Palo Alto, California-based firm, ranked No. 43 on this year's CNBC Disruptor 50 list, has now raised more than $600 million to date from more than 20 investors. Glean competes with a herd of well-financed generative AI startups and tech giants, attempting to compete with Microsoft Copilot and chatbot Amazon Q. It also aims to disrupt a field of cognitive search tool providers such as Perplexity, Coveo, Sinequa and LucidWork. Glean's Series E round, led by Altimeter and DST Global, includes Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, all new investors in the company. Existing investors in the round include Coatue, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Latitude Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital. Founder and CEO Arvind Jain started Glean in 2019 with other former Google engineers as an enterprise search engine. The company soon transitioned to generative AI. Jain has described Glean as Google and ChatGPT for businesses. It offers conversational AI to sort through internal data, retrieve information, and present quick answers. Jain is also a founder of Rubrik, which had a successful IPO in April. "Businesses today are in the midst of an AI transformation -- one that promises to be as big or bigger than the internet, mobile, cloud, and other major technology shifts of the past century," Jain said in a blog post announcing the latest round. Global enterprise spending on generative AI is projected to rocket from $16 billion in 2023 to $143 billion in 2027 and account for 28% of AI expenditures, according to tech research and advisory firm IDC.

AI Startup Glean Raises $260 Million to Develop 'Google for Work'

In just the past year, Glean more than tripled its business, and the company's valuation has more than doubled in the past six months. Generative AI Startup, Glean has raised a $260M Series E funding round, pushing its valuation to $4.6 billion. The new investment, co-led by Altimeter and DST Global, also includes contributions from Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors Coatue, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital also participated in this round. Founded in 2019 by Arvind Jain (CEO), T.R. Vishwanath, Piyush Prahladka, and Tony Gentilcore, Glean provides an AI assistant and enterprise search platform called 'Workplace Search' that connects to a company's internal data sources to help employees find information and answer questions. The platform uses advanced search, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), and large language models to generate personalised answers grounded in an organization's proprietary data. Jain previously worked as a distinguished engineer at Google for over a decade and co-founded Rubrik. The company also revealed new features for its 'Work AI Platform' which is an one centralised platform for quickly and securely deploying AI in the enterprise. Glean's Work AI Platform has introduced new features, including advanced prompting capabilities such as multi-step prompts for complex tasks, a prompt builder for easy creation and sharing, and a prompt library for organizational use. Additionally, Glean is integrating with customer service applications Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud to enhance support operations. Work AI Platform offers other services as well. Glean Chat AI assistant uses company data to answer employee questions, streamlining information access. Glean Apps offers no-code tools for creating custom AI agents and chatbots, empowering users to build tailored solutions without needing extensive technical skills. The Search feature helps identify subject matter experts within the company, facilitating better knowledge sharing. Additionally, Glean's platform now includes AI-powered summarisation and analysis capabilities, which enhance data interpretation and decision-making processes. In just the past year, Glean more than tripled its business, and the company's valuation has more than doubled in the past six months, reflecting growing demand for its AI solutions. The company's user engagement is notable, with Glean Assistant users averaging five queries per day and an impressive 40% DAU/MAU ratio.

AI-Powered Work Assistant Glean Doubles Valuation To $4.6B In Less Than Seven Months

Less than seven months after raising a more than $200 million Series D at a $2.2 billion valuation, AI-enhanced work assistant and enterprise search startup Glean raised more than $260 million in a Series E funding at a $4.6 billion valuation co-led by Altimeter Capital and DST Global. The Palo Alto, California-based startup hit unicorn status in May 2023 after raising a $100 million Series C led by Sequoia Capital. Founded by former Google engineers, Glean's generative AI search tool connects with enterprise companies' applications and databases, and its AI assistant and platform lets users build their own AI apps. Along with the new round, Glean also announced new features to help automate multistep workflows and native integrations for Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud 1. New investors in the round include Craft Ventures, Sapphire Ventures and SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors Coatue, General Catalyst, Iconiq Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Sequoia Capital also participated. In the release announcing its funding, Glean says it has more than tripled its annual recurring revenue in the past year. "We're honored to help some of the world's largest companies adopt AI to transform their businesses," said Arvind Jain, co-founder and CEO of Glean. "To truly unlock new levels of creativity, productivity, and operational efficiency, AI needs to draw on the full picture of an organization's knowledge -- and it needs to be accessible by everyone." Founded in 2019, Glean has raised $620 million, per the company. Rounds Raised By Startups Using AI

Glean Raises $260 Million to Expand Work AI Platform | PYMNTS.com

Glean has raised $260 million in a Series E funding round to accelerate its artificial intelligence (AI) innovation, customer acquisition and global expansion of its Work AI platform for enterprises. This round doubled the company's valuation to $4.6 billion, up from the $2.2 billion valuation it achieved in a February funding round, Glean said in a Tuesday (Sept. 10) press release. Glean's platform is designed to connect and deeply understand an enterprise's data, people, processes and context; to be intuitive enough for everyone to use; and to be secure enough to be relied upon at work, Glean Co-founder and CEO Arvind Jain said in a Tuesday blog post. "This is exactly what we're building at Glean: Work AI for all," Jain said in the post. Glean's Work AI solution began in 2019 as an AI-powered enterprise search engine connected to all of a company's internal data and has since expanded to include an enterprise AI assistant and a platform to build custom generative AI apps, according to the release. The company also announced in the release that it has added next-generation prompting to help users of all skill levels adopt AI, and new embedded solutions called Glean Assist for Zendesk and Salesforce Service Cloud to help support teams serve customers faster and more effectively. Glean Assist for Zendesk is now available to all customers, while Glean Assist for Salesforce Service Cloud and the next-generation prompting capabilities are currently available in beta before becoming generally available, according to the release. Glean's latest funding round was co-led by Altimeter and DST Global, per the release. Apoorv Agrawal, partner at Altimeter, said in the release: "As the race to implement generative AI at work has continued, we believe Glean sets the standard as a company that's not only built an incredible technological solution, but also a remarkable business and consistently growing, devoted customer base." Rahul Mehta, managing partner at DST Global, said in the release: "Their deep understanding of data, powerful search and RAG technology, and exclusive enterprise focus make them a leader in Work AI, which they're making useful for everyone at work with new capabilities like next-generation prompting." Enterprise AI enhances internal search functionality by analyzing patterns and trends in data, offering recommendations and potentially uncovering valuable insights, Eddie Zhou, head of AI at Glean, told PYMNTS in an interview posted in March. "It's something that every knowledge worker, everyone who works on a computer, really, can get some value out of," Zhou said.