infotechlead

Character.AI raises $150 mn in VC funding led by Andreessen Horowitz

Character.AI has raised $150 million in a new VC funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz that valued the AI chatbot startup at $1 billion.
VC funding for techCharacter.AI is also in talks with cloud providers for more strategic investment, Reuters news report said.

The billion-dollar valuation for a company with zero revenue is another example of the continued AI funding boom since OpenAI’s ChatGPT became a widely recognized name. It came amid the recent shockwaves caused by the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.

AI investment in 2023 to date has surpassed the full-year amount in 2020 of $1.5 billion, according to PitchBook data.

Character.AI will use the funding to train its self-built models and expand the 22-person team.

Since its launch six months ago, Character.AI, which enables users to create customized AI companions with specific personality and values, already has 100 million monthly site visits.

OpenAI’s ChatGPT has set a record for the fastest-growing user base when it reached 100 million monthly users in two months.

Of the users who sent a message, their average time spent on the site is more than two hours a day, according to Character.AI.

The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company is launching a new model that adds productivity capabilities, including drafting emails and assisting with test prep, on top of its current use cases such as entertainment, roleplay and emotional support.

“We started the company because we want to get this technology in the hands of everybody on Earth, A billion people can invent a billion use cases,” said Noam Shazeer, CEO at Character.AI.

While not currently generating any revenue, Character.AI plans to launch a paid subscription “in the not distant future”, while keeping the current free version available, Shazeer said. He didn’t rule out an ad-supported model.

Replika, another AI chatbot creator, charges $69.99 in annual fee for 250,000 paying subscribers.

Founded in 2021 by former Google researchers Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, Character.AI had attracted backers including former GitHub CEO Nat Friedman.

Latest

More like this
Related

VC funding: Billee Technologies, Eton Solutions, Quandri, H2Ok Innovations, Bedrock Robotics

Several tech startups —  Billee Technologies, Eton Solutions, Quandri, H2Ok Innovations, Bedrock Robotics, among others,...

Top 12 VC firms capture majority of US venture capital funding in H1-2025

Venture capital funding in the United States during the...

VC funding: Heron, Tavrn, Callate, W3.io, Vultron

Several tech startups — Heron, Tavrn, Collate, W3.io, Vultron, among others, have announced their venture...

VC funding: Crash Override, CertifID, Trusty, Callidus Legal AI, Xtend Robotics

Several tech startups — Crash Override, CertiflD, Trusty, Callidus Legal AI, Xtend Robotics, among...