Y Combinator-backed AI startup Crux raises $2.6 million

Bengaluru, 9 February: Y Combinator-backed AI startup Crux on Friday said it has raised $2.6 million in seed funding round led by Emergent Ventures, with participation from Y Combinator and Neon Fund.

The round also saw participation from its existing investors like First Cheque and others.

Founded in 2022 by Himank Jain, Atharva Padhye and Prabhat Singh, the startup helps B2B SaaS teams build embedded AI copilots faster. It creates AI models that answer questions about business data in plain language along the lines of OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

“This Copilot will be fully aware of your business context, preferences, KPIs, and macro-trends and will take you from Intent to Action in seconds,” the company said.

Crux is backed by industry veterans in product & technology like Tej Redkar (CPTO - SumoLogic), Karthik Ramamoorthy (SVP, Products and GM - Zuora), Aayush Phumbra (cofounder - Chegg), Krishna Mehra (Director of Engineering - Meta) among others.

Crux has pivoted nearly 15 times before arriving at the platform’s current form, it said in a blog post.

Despite the ongoing startup winter, AI (artificial intelligence)-powered ventures have defied the trend. Especially, generative AI-focussed startups have been able to raise money from private equity and venture capital firms.

Generative AI (GenAI) startups have bucked the trend, raising a record $10 billion in 2023, according to a report by GlobalData. This marks a 110 per cent increase compared to 2021.

Last month,Krutrim, an artificial intelligence (AI) venture co-founded by Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, achieved unicorn status after raising $50 million from notable investors, such as Matrix Partners India. Unicorn is a company whose valuation touches $1 billion or more.

Similarly, several AI startups raised funding from PE investors in the last three months.