On Tuesday, Israel-based AI startup AI21 Labs raised a staggering $155 million in a Series C funding round. The round saw participation from technology giants Alphabet’s Google and Nvidia, underscoring the far-reaching impact of AI21’s innovations.
With this latest funding round, AI21 Labs catapults its total capital to an impressive $283 million, achieving a valuation of $1.4 billion. The strides made by the company mirror the broader trend of increasing investments in AI, fueled by the remarkable success of technologies like ChatGPT—a generative AI chatbot developed by Microsoft-backed OpenAI—which captured global attention in late 2022.
AI21’s journey exemplifies the transformative potential of AI technology, attracting not only the attention of investors but also partnerships with enterprises seeking to harness the power of AI to enhance their operations. This phenomenon is not limited to a particular industry; companies ranging from banking institutions to major tech players have ramped up investments in AI to remain competitive and innovative in the digital age.
Amidst this AI renaissance, AI21 emerges as a standout performer, leveraging its expertise to deliver solutions that address contemporary challenges across sectors. The company’s robust customer base spans a spectrum, from individual consumers to Fortune 100 corporations—a testament to the versatility and applicability of AI21’s offerings.
“The innovative work by the AI21 Labs team will help enterprises accelerate productivity and efficiency with generative AI-based systems,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of Nvidia.
AI21 Labs was founded in 2017 by Shashua, Shoham, and Ori Goshen, the startup’s other co-CEO. Shoham, a professor emeritus at Stanford, previously sold two companies to Google, the time management app Timeful, and social network friends organizer Katango. Goshen is also a serial entrepreneur, having co-founded and led several Israel-based tech companies, including the telco analytics firm Crowdx.
AI21 Labs’ flagship product is AI21 Studio, a pay-as-you-go developer platform for building custom text-based business apps off of AI21’s proprietary text-generating AI models — including its cutting-edge Jurassic-2 model. The startup also sells access to the aforementioned Wordtune, a multilingual reading and writing AI assistant akin to Grammarly.
As businesses move towards a more digitally-driven future, AI21’s success story inspires those who want to create and innovate. It shows that visionary thinking and hard work can make a difference and change the world.