AI hardware and software startup Humane has raised $100 million in a Series C round led by Kindred Ventures. Existing investors Tiger Global, Valia Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Lachy Groom and OpenAI founder Sam Altman participated in the round.
New strategic investors and partners, including Hico Capital (SK networks’ US investment arm), Microsoft, Volvo Car Technology Fund, LG Technology Ventures, Top Tier Capital, Hudson Bay Capital and Socium Ventures also joined the round.
Humane, founded in 2018 by former Apple engineering team employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, is building software platforms and consumer devices for AI. The latest funding round follows Humane’s $100 million Series B round in September 2021. The company will use the new funding to accelerate the development of artificial intelligence-powered personal mobile computing.
According to a press release, Humane has entered into strategic partnerships with some of the most influential technology companies in the world:
- Humane will use Microsoft’s cloud computing to bring its service platform to market.
- The company will integrate OpenAI’s technology into Humane’s consumer devices.
- Humane’s future global expansion plans include a partnership with SK Networks, a Korean multinational covering ICT business in Korea.
- Humane will collaborate with LG on potential research and development projects for the next phase of Humane products, core technologies for future Humane devices, and integration with home technology.
- The Volvo Car Technology Fund will work with Humane to bring the company’s products to the automotive industry.
Our first device will enable people to bring AI anywhere. It’s an exciting time, and we’ve been focused on how we can build platforms and devices that harness the true power and potential of this technology.
Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhri said
While there are few exact details about what Humane is building, the company released a trailer last July that gave viewers a sneak peek at what the company is working on. In the trailer, the main character stands among a group of people who are connected to their devices, which may be handheld, worn on the wrist, or cover their eyes.
Last August, Humane hired YouTuber Sam Sheffer as head of new media. Sheffer was previously a contributing editor at Engadget. He also spent four years as a social media manager at The Verge and later as a creative producer at Mashable.
Humane isn’t the only artificial intelligence company to receive big funding lately. Last week, the Financial Times reported that Character, a startup developing artificial intelligence chatbots that can impersonate public figures, raised $200 million to $250 million in a round led by Andreessen Horowitz , valuing the platform at $1 billion. Generative artificial intelligence startup Typeface quietly emerged on Feb. 27 with $65 million in funding.
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