An American start-up, Character.a, founded 16 months ago by two former Google employees, reached a valuation of $ 1 billion after a new fundraising.
The company announced, Thursday, March 23, 2023, having raised $ 150 million during a new fundraising led by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital company.
However, according to a company representative, it should be noted that Character.a is currently generating any income, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Character.ai, launched a Beta version of its software last September, which allows users to create and interact with chatbots that simulate famous characters or personalities like Vladimir Putin or Elon Musk.
The former engineers of Google Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas founded the start-up in November 2021. The site receives 100 million visitors per month.
This last funding will allow Character.a to hire more engineers and extend the capacities of his chatbot. The company plans to release a preversion from a more advanced chatbot model capable of writing emails or helping people study for tests.
This last development in artificial intelligence comes after the race launched by the start-up Openai, which launched its chatbot Chatgpt in November 2022.
OPENAI was founded in 2015 and the company received a promise from Microsoft Corp. Investing billions of dollars in the AI open over several years.