Raleigh-based Pryon, a pioneer in AI-powered knowledge management, has raised $100 million in a Series B funding round led by Thomas Tull's US Innovative Technology Fund. Existing investors Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, Breyer Capital, and BootstrapLabs also participated in the round, along with new investors like Good Growth Capital.
The fresh funding will allow Pryon to expand its engineering team, accelerate product development, and scale go-to-market operations as it looks to cement itself as a leader in the burgeoning market for enterprise AI.
Founded in 2017 by veterans of Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and IBM's Watson, Pryon has developed a first-of-its-kind "knowledge fabric" that weaves together an organization's unstructured data to extract actionable intelligence. The platform allows knowledge workers to get quick, authoritative answers to natural language questions, overcoming what Pryon calls "knowledge friction."
What sets Pryon apart is its ability to allow users to query their organizations’ unstructured data securely, offering either extractive or summary-based results based on operational needs. These results are always anchored in verified sources, steering clear of the pitfalls often associated with large foundational language models.
Pryon counts major enterprises across sectors like energy, finance, healthcare, and industrials as clients. It touts its adherence to responsible AI principles like energy efficiency, data privacy, and ethical data sourcing as key differentiators from consumer-focused AI tools.
The firm's founders say the new funding will fuel two key priorities: growth and innovation. On the growth side, Pryon plans to expand its sales and marketing apparatus to acquire more enterprise customers. It also aims to ramp up hiring across engineering, product, and design functions.
Pryon intends to advance its AI and machine learning capabilities to keep pace with the state-of-the-art in natural language processing. It also plans to double down on optimizing its platform for speed, scalability, and ease-of-use.
Thomas Tull, Chairman of lead investor USIT, praised Pryon's "unique innovations" in trustworthy AI computing. Such innovations are crucial for maintaining US leadership in AI, Tull said.
The lofty $100 million figure underscores investor enthusiasm for Pryon's mission of bringing AI's consumer power into the workplace. With seasoned leadership and ample capital, the firm is positioned to shape the next generation of knowledge management.