Writer Raises $200M for Enterprise AI, Hits $1.9B Valuation

Apologies for the delay! – due to some internal deadlines, we're bringing you Tuesday’s newsletter today. Catch up on Waymo's expansion, Writer's major funding news, and the latest TWiST500 updates

Top News

• Waymo expands in LA: The self-driving acceleration continues this week with news that Alphabet-subsidiary, and decacorn Waymo is dropping its waitlist in LA. That means more than a quarter million more people can now use its self-driving taxi service, based on public reporting of the company’s previous customer backlog in the city. After Waymo dropped its waitlist in San Francisco, its rides-per-week stats shot higher. Expect the same here.

• Writer raises $200M: If you thought that the AI funding wave had crested, you were wrong. Writer’s new round values the genAI startup at $1.9 billion. Writer is not, however, another text generator. Instead, it’s focused on helping customers build AI apps. And even more notably, it is building its own family of large language models. TechCrunch reports that the company is also working on AI agents, adding another startup to the list of those pursuing agentic AI tooling for corporate customers.

• A European search push: While TWiST has compared Google, Perplexity, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT search tool, there are other players trying to take on legacy web search. Over in Europe, two companies, Ecosia (German) and Qwant (French), want to build “a European search index and reduce their dependence on U.S. Big Tech firms,” CNBC reports. If the two firms can build something that is competitive for their home markets, the model could be replicated not merely across the EU more broadly, but other markets, too.

TWiST500

Writer. I picked its funding round for today’s news because I am adding it to the TWiST500. Not because it just raised capital, though that doesn’t hurt. No, if we rewind the clock to June, VentureBeat reported that Writer had “tripled its revenue over the past year and expanded its customer base to 250 companies.”

Now, tripling revenue can be easier than it sounds if you are starting from a small base. But Writer managed the feat after raising a $100 million round in Fall of 2023 at a half-billion dollar valuation. Presuming that its 2023 funding event (a Series B) was at least partially predicated on results and not hype, a trebling by the Summer of 2024 and a late-year Series C at a nearly 4x valuation gain implies that the company’s revenue progress is material, and continuing.

That makes it a good candidate for inclusion on our list, full-stop. But what else is fun about Writer is that it, at once, was a somewhat unsurprising company — applying AI in an enterprise context was always going to generate a few unicorns — and one that does surprise. By building its own models, Writer feels a bit more ‘in-house’ than many other AI-forward startups, who skew away from rolling their own models. Onto the list goes Writer! — Alex

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This Week in Startups

E2043: Jason and Alex dive into an action-packed episode featuring VATN Systems' Nelson Mills discussing underwater drone defense applications and advancements in military tech. They explore underwater autonomy, manufacturing insights, and the global defense funding climate, along with a look at emerging robotics in warfare and LG’s stretchable screen technology. The show rounds out with insights on Klarna's IPO, fintech challenges, and AI's transformative impact on the job market and economy.

E2042: Jason and Alex sit down with a great guest—Serve Robotics CEO Ali Kashani. They chat about Serve's journey scaling food delivery automation with robots on the streets and in kitchens, along with their creative route to Nasdaq via a reverse merger. They also dive into the "Trump Trade" and how deregulation is driving a surge in fintech stocks and crypto optimism, and wrap up with insights on shifts in immigration policy.

E2041: Jason and Alex dive into Apple's privacy challenges and discuss trust in tech companies. They explore recent trends in AI, including OpenAI's acquisition of chat.com and Reddit's evolving growth strategies. The episode wraps up with analysis on major IPOs, market trends, and Amazon's AI ambitions.

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Applications are open for Cohort 2 of the LAUNCH CloudKitchens Incubator (LiCK). We're looking for food entrepreneurs who wish to expand into the ghost kitchen space or tech founders with a team and a great idea. The application and more information can be found at https://ck.launch.co/.

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