10 Harvard/HBS Founded AI Startups You Should Know
The legacy of Harvard's startup ecosystem continues amid AI boom
Phoenix is a pre/seed stage venture capital firm investing in Harvard- and HBS-founded startups. Subscribe below to stay up-to-date on the latest insights, research and happenings from the Harvard/HBS’ startup ecosystem.
Perplexity AI
Perplexity AI is an answer-based search engine founded by Johnny Ho (Harvard College, 2017). Perplexity has raised $172M+ from investors like NEA and IVP. The company is currently valued at $1.04B, however the company is reportedly actively raising $250M+ at a $2.5B - $3B valuation, according to TechCrunch.
Etched
Founded by Gavin Uberti, Chris Zhu, and Robert W., Etched is building specialized chips to build products that are impossible on existing GPUs. According to Primary, GenAI and LLMs are 140x faster with Etched. According to a post by Pavel Belov, Etched’s chip is 10x faster and cheaper than NIVIDA’s next-generation B200 GPUs. The company has raised $120M from Primary and a world class group of angel investors.
LangChain
Founded by Harrison Chase (Harvard College, 2017), LangChain is a framework helping developers build applications powered by LLMs. LangChain has raised $35M from investors including Benchmark and Sequoia.
Shield AI
Founded by Brandon Tseng (HBS, 2017), Shield AI is a defense tech company building intelligent AI systems including AI pilots for aircrafts. The company was most recently valued at a $2.8B valuation with key investors including Homebrew & a16z.
Writer
Founded by May Habib (Harvard College), Writer is a full-stack generative AI platform for enterprises making it easy for organizations to adopt AI-first apps and workflows that deliver quantifiable ROI quickly. Writer has raised $126M valuing the company at $750M.
Pika
Founded by Demi Guo (Harvard College, 2021), Pika is an idea-to-video platform that transforms creativity into motion across various domains. The company has raised $80M valuing the company at $470M with key investors including Accel, a16z, A*, Elad Gil, Spark Capital, and more.
Anyscale
Founded by Robert Nishihara (Harvard College, 2013), Anyscale is the AI platform enabling AI companies to develop with unmatched scale, performance, and efficiency. The company has raised $160M, achieving unicorn status, with key investors including NEA and a16z.
Recent Launches
Decagon
→ Founded by Jesse Zhang (Harvard College), Decagon builds gen AI agents for customer support for enterprise companies. Decagon recently launched with $35M raised from Accel, A16z, A*, and Elad Gil. Launch announcement here. TechCrunch here.
Daydream
→ Founded by Julie Bornstein (Harvard College + MBA), Daydream focuses on providing personalized shopping results by using generative AI, machine learning and computer vision. Daydream raised $50M in seed funding from Index, Forerunner, Google Ventures, and more. Launch announcement here. TechCrunch here.
Created by Humans
→ Founded by Trip Adler (Harvard College, 2006), Created by Humans is a platform that makes it easy for creators to license their work, and for AI companies to access high-quality, legally-sound content with the full permission of creators. The company raised $5M from investors including Craft, Floodgate, Slow Ventures, and more. Launch announcement here.
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This is great stuff!