Generative AI startup Writer raises $200M at a $1.9B valuation

Writer has raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its enterprise-focused generative AI platform. The Series C round was co-led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures and Workday Ventures. Writer CEO May Habib says the new cash, […]
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Writer has raised $200 million at a $1.9 billion valuation to expand its generative AI platform.

The round was co-led by Premji Invest, Radical Ventures, and ICONIQ Growth, with participation from investors including Salesforce Ventures, Adobe Ventures, B Capital, Citi Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Workday Ventures.

Writer CEO May Habib says that the new cash, which brings Writer’s total raised to $326 million, will be put toward product development and “cementing the company’s leadership in the enterprise generative AI category.”

“At Writer, we’re not just creating models that can execute tasks but developing advanced AI systems that deliver mission-critical enterprise work,” said Habib in a statement. “Today, hundreds of the world’s largest companies are using Writer to deploy generative AI applications and agents that solve tough business challenges and produce unprecedented ROI. With this new funding, we’re laser focused on delivering the next generation of autonomous AI solutions that are secure, reliable, and adaptable in highly complex, real-world enterprise scenarios.”

Writer was founded in 2020 by Habib and Waseem AlShikh. The company has grown over the years into a full-stack generative AI platform, with products that can be customized for various enterprise use cases.

In 2023, Writer launched its own models, Palmyra, for text generation. Later that same year, the company debuted features that connect business data sources to its models and the ability for customers to self-host Writer-trained models.

Writer’s current focus is on “AI agents” that can plan and execute complex enterprise workflows across systems and teams, as well as customizable AI guardrails and a suite of no-code development tools.

Despite the intense competition in the generative AI space, Writer has done quite well for itself. The company has hundreds of customers, including Mars, Ally Bank, Qualcomm, Salesforce, Uber, Accenture, L’Oreal, and Intuit.

“There’s a tremendous amount of engineering required to transform models into reliable business tools,” Patrick Stokes, EVP of product and industries marketing at Salesforce, said in a press release. “Writer provides a refined, AI-powered solution that’s effective, easy to deploy, and has rapidly accelerated our workflows here at Salesforce. We’re excited to join them on this journey not only as an investor, but also as a customer.”

 


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