AI startup You.com in talks to raise funds at $1.4 billion valuation to fund push into AI-powered enterprise search

Less than a year after shifting its focus from general-purpose AI search to building an assistant for work-related tasks, You.com is reportedly in discussions to raise new funding at a $1.4 billion valuation, according to The Information.

“AI search startup You.com is in talks to raise funds at a $1.4 billion valuation to fund a push into AI search for business,” The Information reported.

The talks follow You.com’s $50 million Series B round last year, which included backing from Georgian, Salesforce Ventures, NVIDIA, Gen Digital, SBVA (formerly SoftBank Ventures Asia), DuckDuckGo, and Day One Ventures. That round brought total funding to $99 million and pushed its valuation to somewhere between $700 million and $900 million.

You.com saw a spike in attention when ChatGPT launched in late 2022, riding the wave of interest in AI-powered search. But that momentum didn’t last. As Reuters noted, users started to lose interest, and the company struggled to keep up with rivals like Microsoft’s AI-infused Bing and Google’s smarter search responses.

According to Similarweb, traffic to You.com hit 11 million visits in the last year, down from a high of 20 million in February 2023. App downloads also took a hit. Sensor Tower data shows a 69% drop year-over-year, signaling the uphill battle for AI startups trying to hold users’ attention.

Even so, You.com hasn’t stood still. The Palo Alto-based company repositioned itself as an AI assistant aimed at boosting productivity while still providing internet search. On its website, You.com now highlights its ability to help with tasks like summarizing information, answering questions, and supporting daily workflows.

The company was founded in 2020 by former Salesforce AI leads Richard Socher and Bryan McCann. Socher, who serves as CEO and Chief Scientist, has previously said the platform can generate text, write code, and interact with various tools to deliver precise results. He didn’t respond to a request for comment on the fundraising plans.

The AI assistant space is heating up fast. Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and even Apple are rolling out smarter products that blend AI with productivity and personal search features.

You.com charges $15 per month for its premium plan (billed annually), giving users access to leading AI models and productivity features. That’s slightly below the $20 monthly price point from Google, Microsoft, and OpenAI.

AI-Powered Enterprise Search

Beyond its consumer-facing AI assistant, You.com is also making a quiet push into the enterprise market. The company offers a suite of AI tools, ranging from agents to APIs, designed to help organizations boost employee productivity and unlock new revenue opportunities.

For knowledge workers, You.com’s platform acts like a high-speed research assistant, delivering accurate information and analysis on demand. In sectors like finance and media, companies are tapping into these tools to streamline research workflows and improve decision-making.

Some businesses are taking things a step further, using You.com’s AI capabilities as the backbone of their own products and services. By embedding the technology directly into their platforms, they’re able to build smarter, faster, more responsive tools without starting from scratch.

The startup’s enterprise customers reportedly include hedge funds, tech unicorns, and even publicly traded companies. Among the early adopters are WestCap, the investment firm led by former Airbnb CFO Laurence Tosi, and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which is exploring ways to use AI to support its research initiatives.

You.com’s quiet expansion into B2B signals a broader ambition: to not just be an AI search alternative for everyday users, but to become essential infrastructure for how work gets done.