“26-Year-Old Entrepreneur Secures Additional $28 Million to Develop Innovative AI Workplace Assistant”

Stockholm-based Sana Raises $28M in Series B Funding

Sana, an AI-based learning platform founded by Joel Hellermark when he was 19, has raised an additional $28 million in its Series B round. The round was led by global VC firm NEA and Workday Ventures and brings the company’s total funding to $80 million. Sana’s learning platform provides learning courses, polls, and quizzes to help upskill employees. Now, the startup has announced the launch of a suite of generative AI tools and new funding to help the company grow.

Solving the Information Scattering Across Silos

Joel Hellermark founded Sana to solve the problem of information scattered across silos, making it inaccessible to employees when they need it most. According to Hellermark, Sana creates an index for a company’s information, allowing employees to query and search it and perform tasks like creating training courses, summarizing, and translating information.

Sana’s Platform: A Knowledge Library for Efficient Learning

Sana’s software uses eight different AI systems and large language models including OpenAI’s Whisper, GPT-4, Dall-E, Anthropic’s Claude, and Google’s PaLM. It selects which model to use based on specific tasks like transcription, summarization, or content creation. The platform acts as an interface between large language models and companies’ information and data.

Privacy is the Priority

As more employees rely on generative AI to extract or generate information, they also run the risk of unknowingly entering proprietary company information into AI systems, creating uncertainty about how that data is being used. Sana’s system is designed to keep a company’s proprietary information private, making it a go-to solution for businesses that prioritize privacy.

Efficient Search Across Platforms

Sana searches all of a company’s apps and returns results within 100 milliseconds. According to Hellermark, they use a lightweight model to load the answer within milliseconds and figure out what the user wants to do as quickly as they type it.

Competition and Unique Scandinavian Design Ethos

Sana competes with startups like enterprise search unicorn Glean, enterprise AI startup Typeface, and Adept, which provides an AI-based assistant to perform tasks. Sana stands out among them due to its Scandinavian design ethos, which prioritizes user experience over all else. Hellermark cites Spotify’s success as an example of Scandinavian design’s power.

Success Stories and Future Plans

Sana’s learning management system is used by HR departments in companies, with 200 enterprise customers across sectors like healthcare and banking, including Fintech platform Klarna and pharmaceutical brand Merck. The company plans to use the additional funding for product development and to grow its team of 70 employees. Hellermark’s ultimate goal is to improve employees’ ability to learn and access information more efficiently, thereby increasing their productivity.

Conclusion

Sana’s new funding round is a testament to the company’s success in providing efficient learning courses, polls, and quizzes to upskill employees. The company’s focus on privacy and efficient search across platforms make it a go-to solution for companies looking for a way to improve their employees’ productivity. With its new suite of generative AI tools, Sana is poised to continue its growth and expand its reach in the coming years.