Read AI, the company helping you manage your virtual meetings, just got a major boost to expand its reach to your inbox. The startup raised $50 million in new funding, reaching a $450 million valuation just six months after its previous investment round.
The funding comes as Read AI launches a free Chrome extension for Gmail that brings its AI assistant directly to your email. The tool transforms your inbox into an intelligent workspace by connecting all your digital conversations. It automatically creates one-sentence summaries of lengthy email threads and displays relevant context from your Zoom, Teams, and Slack conversations directly within Gmail.
When you're reading an email about a project, you'll see related meeting highlights, transcripts, and chat messages without switching between apps. The extension also helps manage your calendar by suggesting optimal meeting times and can even calculate meeting costs to help you make better scheduling decisions. In the future, the company says the extension will draft email responses using the context from all these connected communications.
The company's rapid growth caught investors' attention. Read AI is adding 100,000 new accounts weekly and keeping 81% of users after their first month. Active users have jumped 720% in the past year, with the service now used by three-quarters of Fortune 500 companies.
Smash Capital led the investment, with partner Brad Twohig joining Read AI's board. "While meeting transcription is becoming commonplace, Read AI's vision of an assistant that follows you through your workday sets them apart," Twohig said.
The funding will help Read AI expand its team from 40 to 100 employees by early 2025, focusing on engineering and data science roles. The company plans to continue offering core features like the Gmail extension for free to drive adoption.
Read AI's platform already works with popular tools like Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Slack, and Salesforce. With this expansion into Gmail, you'll have an AI assistant ready to help wherever you spend your workday.