Gluru has raked in $2 million in Seed funding from investors including Sussex Place Ventures, SAATCHiNVEST, GECAD, and Playfair Capital. The startup, which is working on a AI-powered task platform, has raised $3.5 million to date.
Founded two years ago by Tim Porter, who has worked with Shazam, Google and Apple, the company’s goal is to build AI technology that conveniently transforms the mass of communications data accumulated by us into smaller, doable tasks, hence increasing user productivity by manifold.
Available for web, Android and an iOS version in beta, Gluru’s first product is a smart to-do list app that claims to use a multi-patented and unique approach to natural language processing, deep learning, and ontology, aiming to sync with your various “conversational data sources” — initially Gmail and Google Calendar — to identify daily tasks and suggest relevant actions. Porter explained:
We start by simplifying conversations into tasks. Tasks frame not only our actions and goals, but also those of services, devices, and machines we use every day. We found that if artificial intelligence could identify and understand these building blocks to our daily lives, then it is possible to predict the complementary action (and in the near future answers).
The long-term vision is that once you’ve connected Gluru to your various data sources the startup’s natural language processing and machine learning handles the rest. Porter added, that currently, Gluru supports Gmail and Google Calendar. A host of sources are coming soon, such as Outlook, Slack, Alexa, Google Drive, Dropbox and Salesforce, and Gluru can live inside all of these ecosystems, powering productivity. Speaking about the recent funding round, he says,
Working on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence over the last two years, we have been honing this sophisticated technology to deliver a platform that can empower productivity like never before. Our smart task manager is only the beginning; our vision is to power consumers’ and businesses’ productivity platforms, services, and devices with AI, so users can focus on what really matters, saving time and money. Having strategic funding partners like Sussex Place Ventures and SAATCHiNVEST has been paramount to making that a reality.
The road ahead also sees Gluru planning to roll-out subscription options for enterprises later this year.
Alex Dunsdon, Equity Partner at SAATCHiNVEST, said,
We love groundbreaking enterprise AI that provides practical applications right now, as Gluru is doing – not some distant R&D pipe dream. Tim and the Gluru team have some of the best AI talent in the world, disrupting the productivity space today, and we’re excited about where they can take this.
