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Town raises $108 million Series B at unicorn valuation as AI assistants start working with customers
San Francisco startup Town announced a $108 million Series B round that, according to TechCrunch, gave it unicorn status. Employees' AI assistants can share approved information with each other, and can now also work with customers and people outside the company.
Town, a San Francisco startup, announced a $108 million Series B round on Monday, October 19. According to TechCrunch, the round gave it unicorn status. The company's AI assistants can share approved information with one another, and they are now also meant to work with customers and others outside the company.
What Town raised
The round is co-led by Forerunner Ventures and Menlo Ventures. According to TechCrunch, Andreessen Horowitz, Serena Ventures and First Round Capital also took part. TechCrunch describes Town as a roughly two-year-old company founded by Jean-Denis Greze, previously chief technology officer at Plaid.
TechCrunch reports unicorn status, meaning a valuation of at least $1 billion, but does not give the company's exact valuation.
How Townie works
Town's product is aimed at businesses: each employee gets an AI assistant called a Townie. It helps with tasks by connecting to tools such as email and calendars, as well as other core work systems.
Individual employees' Townies can talk to each other and share approved information. The new element is the ability to work with customers and others outside the company.
Alongside the round, Town announced a shared workflow: new business information is automatically pushed to employees' Townies, so no one has to update their own assistant by hand.
Numbers and caveats
According to TechCrunch, Town launched publicly four months ago. The company says it reached annual recurring revenue in the millions of dollars within a few weeks. These figures come from the company.
TechCrunch also notes that Town is one of many AI assistants flooding the market. The outlet said it reached out to the company for comment; the short piece contains no statements from company representatives or investors.
The round shows investor appetite for business AI assistants despite a crowded market. Whether a model of assistants working with each other and with customers will hold up is not yet known.
