Nvidia-backed Israeli AI startup AI21 is raising a $300 million funding round
Roei Shor
- AI21 is raising a $300 million Series D funding round to build its own LLMs.
- AI21 aims to reduce hallucinations in generative AI, enhancing reliability for companies.
- Investors include Google and Nvidia; customers include Wix and Capgemini.
AI21, an Israeli startup building its own large language models (LLMs), is raising a $300 million Series D funding round, according to a source with knowledge of the deal.
The valuation could not be learned. The company last raised $208 million at a $1.4 billion valuation in 2023. This round would bring the company's total funding to $636 million.
AI21 was founded in 2017 by entrepreneurs and AI researchers Amnon Shashua (founder and CEO of Mobileye), Professor Yoav Shoham (Professor Emeritus at Stanford University and former Principal Scientist at Google), and Ori Goshen (serial entrepreneur and founder of CrowdX).
While many AI startups rely on existing LLMs built by companies like Anthropic or OpenAI, AI21 is building its LLMs from the ground up.
Its goal is to make generative AI more dependable for companies by reducing hallucinations, which are when LLMs present false information as fact.
In March, AI21 launched an AI orchestration system called Maestro it says is capable of reducing hallucinations by 50% and boosting reasoning model accuracy to over 95%.
Existing investors in AI21 include Google, Nvidia, Intel Capital, Walden Catalyst, Pitango, SCB10X, b2venture, Samsung Next, Comcast Ventures, and Ahren Innovation Capital. Customers include FNAC, Capgemini, and website builder Wix.
About $7 billion in investment went to AI-related startups last month, representing 30% of venture funding worldwide, according to Crunchbase data.
Israeli tech companies have raised more than $12 billion in 2024, up 31% from 2023, according to Startup Nation Central. Israeli cybersecurity company Wix was just acquired by Google for $32 billion, the search giant's largest ever acquisition.