AI search startup Glean raises $260 million in Series E funding, doubling its valuation to $4.6 billion

Artificial intelligence search startup Glean has secured $260 million in Series E funding, pushing its valuation to $4.6 billion — more than double the $2.2 billion figure from February.

The round was led by Altimeter and DST Global, with continued support from Coatue, General Catalyst, ICONIQ Growth, IVP, Kleiner Perkins, Latitude Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Sequoia Capital. Glean’s total funding now stands at over $600 million from 20 investors.

The company also introduced new features that let users craft “multi-step” prompts in natural language, eliminating the need for coding expertise or prompt engineering.

Founded in 2019 by CEO Arvind Jain and former Google engineers, Glean started as an enterprise search engine using AI assistants and large language models, like OpenAI’s GPT, to provide tailored answers based on a company’s internal data.

In a blog post, Arvind explained that he had been asked by several people why Glean decided to raise this round, given the substantial funding secured earlier in the year. He clarified that the company did not need to raise this latest round. In fact, after this round, Glean now has over $550 million in cash on hand, alongside a rapidly growing business that supports continued innovation through organic growth.

However, he noted that demand for Glean has only accelerated over the past year, making it the right time to meet the increasing needs of their customers, including some of the largest enterprises in the world. He expressed greater confidence than ever in Glean’s ability to deliver on its promises.

“Businesses today are in the midst of an AI transformation — one that promises to be as big or bigger as the internet, mobile, cloud, and other major technology shifts of the past century. CIOs are in the thick of it. Not only are they under immense pressure to quickly and securely bring AI into their organizations, but they’re simultaneously grappling with enabling their employees to be successful with AI. I’ve heard a common refrain from many CIOs: it all comes down to the people. You can’t drive AI transformation in a company without first getting its employees to embrace AI. After all, it’s AI-centric employees who will ultimately create AI-centric companies,” Jain shared in a blog post while announcing the funding round.

Glean soon pivoted to focus on generative AI, positioning itself as a tool that combines the capabilities of Google and ChatGPT for businesses. Its conversational AI is designed to sift through internal data and deliver quick answers. Jain, also a founder of Rubrik — a company that went public in April — has mentioned plans to ramp up hiring. Glean’s clientele includes Reddit, Pinterest, and Databricks, among others. The company has a total of 500 employees globally.

With millions of dollars war chest, Glean is now up against numerous well-funded competitors in the generative AI space, including Microsoft Copilot, Amazon Q, and various cognitive search tools like Perplexity, Coveo, Sinequa, and Lucidworks.