A new generative AI startup with ties to Seattle just raised $65 million from Microsoft’s M12 and others to help enterprises produce content.
Typeface emerged from stealth mode Monday and unveiled its new platform tailored for businesses to create content ranging from product images, blogs, social media posts, job listings, and more.
The San Francisco-based startup uses natural language processing and other deep learning tech to understand the tone and audience of a business.
Typeface is among a rush of generative AI startups attracting investment even amid a venture capital slowdown. Many of these companies are building enterprise tools to help workers become more efficient.
Tech giants including Microsoft are also rolling out their own services powered by generative AI.
Typeface CEO and founder Abhay Parasnis told GeekWire his company “represents a unique play in the industry, and it is the future of generative AI for businesses of all sizes.”
Parasnis was previously CTO at Adobe. He was also a senior vice president at Oracle and and spent nearly a decade as a general manager at Microsoft Azure.
“Generative AI platforms have immense potential to transform storytelling and collaboration, but to fully realize their potential for the enterprise, they must be combined with unique organizational assets and identity,” he said.
It’s still early days for generative AI tech. There are legal concerns related to the content these models use, and potential to spew out incorrect or even offensive results to a user’s inquiry.
Parasnis said Typeface is “taking a responsible approach to AI, ensuring appropriate safeguards are in place to prevent misuse.”
Typeface used its own software to co-write its press release Monday, augmenting the generation of entire sentences and paragraphs of text.
The company has a R&D footprint in the Seattle region and expects it “to be a core center of innovation for us,” Parasnis said.
The company’s engineering leader, Yue Ning, is based in Seattle and previously co-founded PANDA, an AI startup incubated at the Allen Institute for AI.
Typeface attracted investment from Seattle venture capitalist S. “Soma” Somasegar, a former Microsoft executive and current managing director at Madrona. His investment in Typeface was made in an individual capacity, separate from Madrona.
Other Typeface backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners, GV (Google Ventures), and Menlo Ventures.
