Context, a startup constructing an AI-powered workplace suite, on Wednesday introduced that it raised $11 million in a seed spherical led by Lux Capital with participation from Qualcomm Ventures and Common Catalyst. The spherical, which brings the corporate’s complete raised to round $15.75 million, values Context at $70 million.
Founder Joseph Semrai, a Thiel Fellow, began engaged on Context in 2024 after he realized that present digital workplace suites are usually not properly suited to reap the benefits of AI fashions.
“[W]e have a bunch of disparate purposes that aren’t essentially constructed maintaining the ability of [AI models] in thoughts,” Semrai informed TechCrunch in a telephone interview. “We need to reap the benefits of the truth that [models] can perceive massive context home windows and use a number of purposes on the identical time to get the most effective outcome.”
Over the previous few years, many startups in the productiveness and searching house have made consumer interface modifications to undertake a chat-forward expertise, largely because of the rise of AI-powered chatbots like ChatGPT. Semrai thinks that Context, which is equally chat-focused, is usually a highly effective instrument for staff utilizing an workplace suite, just like how Cursor has change into a helpful software for programmers.
Workplace suite makers like Google and Microsoft have infused AI into their purposes. Canva, which has been within the artistic house traditionally, can be designing merchandise that go well with every kind of workplace work with AI on the heart. Notion, in the meantime, is constructing an enterprise office with an AI search and analysis mode.
Many of those merchandise provide connectors to third-party purposes. However Semrai mentioned that whereas connecting to sources and retrieving information is turning into commoditized, new-age instruments don’t at all times ship capabilities that assist with evaluation. That, he mentioned, is the place Context is available in — it’s designed to make it simpler for customers to purpose over the info they fetch from numerous sources and make choices primarily based on that.
Context has a easy interface with a chat field within the heart. You may ask the AI instrument to carry out analysis primarily based in your paperwork, integrations, and net information. You may then ask it to transform all this to a doc, spreadsheet, or presentation, whereas persevering with to work together with it to generate completely different artifacts.
Context additionally affords a Python interpreter to allow you to run code.
The objective isn’t essentially changing a fully-featured workplace suite like Microsoft 365. Slightly, Context goes after a market not well-served by the present crop of instruments, in keeping with Semrai. For instance, not like many AI-powered information evaluation merchandise, Context will quickly have the ability to work offline, Semrai mentioned, enabling easy evaluation and doc drafting primarily based on present information and paperwork through Context’s desktop app.
Customers can check out Context without cost with 50 credit, one workspace, and 10 workforce members. Alternatively, they will pay $20 monthly to get 2,000 credit with no limits on workspaces and workforce members.
