Read AI raises $21M to bring connected intelligence to meetings, email, and messaging

Read AI, a leader in AI-powered meeting summaries, today announced a $21 million Series A financing round led by Goodwater Capital, with participation from existing investor Madrona Venture Group. The funds will be used to accelerate the company’s mission of building the future of work, where every interaction is enhanced by artificial intelligence.

Along with the funding, Read AI unveiled a new offering that brings its “connected intelligence” to email and messaging platforms, including Gmail, Outlook, Teams, and Slack. This expansion allows Read AI’s intelligent agents to work in the background, enabling meetings, emails, and messages to interact with each other and provide users with personalized, actionable briefings tailored to their needs and priorities.

“Read is about getting to the heart of work — creating value, not sorting emails, expanding threads, and sitting in meetings,” David Shim, co-founder and CEO of Read AI, said in an interview with VentureBeat. “[It] brings together your meetings, emails, and messages and transforms them into collaborative partners, so that they talk to each other, share information, offer updates, find answers, and organize tasks through connected intelligence.”

Breakthrough in connected intelligent agents

Read AI’s meeting summaries, previously available on Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, and Zoom, have experienced significant growth over the past year, with a 12x increase in monthly active users and a 15x increase in recorded meetings across more than 40 countries, according to Shim.

The company’s AI-powered topic reports, or “Readouts,” condense large volumes of emails and message threads into concise summaries, complete with assigned action items and learned answers to key questions. Early user feedback indicates that Read AI is consistently freeing up one day per week for knowledge workers, allowing them to focus on core responsibilities.

“Across knowledge workers, Read is being told that it is consistently freeing up 1 day a week allowing them to focus in on core work,” said Shim. “Multinational corporations are using Read AI to streamline communication across time zones and continents. Social workers are using Read to measure client meetings and then uploading their Readouts into their EHR / EMR software. Consultants commonly see 5 to 10 incremental hours available per employee week with Read AI.”

Prioritizing data privacy and security

Shim told VentureBeat that Read AI’s approach to data privacy and security is a core tenet of its platform, with regular SOC 2 Type 2 audits and end-to-end encryption on all measured data. Users have full control over data retention policies, and the platform is designed to give businesses and users complete control over their measured data.

As the generative AI space continues to evolve rapidly, Read AI differentiates itself through its multimodal approach to meeting summaries, which incorporates audio, video, and participant reactions into its models. This unique approach, combined with the company’s focus on proprietary models, positions Read AI to maintain a competitive advantage in the market.

With the latest funding round, Read AI plans to double the size of its team in the next two quarters and continue investing in connected intelligence by adding new platforms and features. As the company works towards its vision of building an “AI auto-pilot” for knowledge workers, it remains focused on delivering immediate and ongoing ROI to its growing user base.