Unicorn AI Firm Writer Raises $200M, Plans to Challenge OpenAI, Anthropic

The enterprise AI arms race shows no signs of slowing.

Writer, a San Francisco-based startup founded in 2020, on Tuesday announced a $200 million series C venture capital boost, giving the company unicorn status at a $1.9 billion valuation. Writer will use the new funding to accelerate development of its AI solutions and applications for use in healthcare, retail, and financial services.

Last month, Writer launched its enterprise large language model (LLM) trained on synthetic data, which is becoming an increasingly popular training method as company’s look to minimize privacy concerns.

“We’re not just creating LLMs that can execute tasks but developing advanced AI systems that deliver mission-critical enterprise work,” Writer CEO and Co-Founder May Habib said in a statement. “With this new funding, we’re laser-focused on delivering the next generation of autonomous AI solutions that are secure, reliable, and adaptable in highly complex, real-world enterprise scenarios.”

According to Statista, the global AI market size in 2024 stood at $184 billion. In 2023, AI startups saw valuations 20% higher than non-AI companies raising seed funding. At the Series B level, AI startup valuations were nearly 60% higher. As companies race to add generative AI (GenAI) capabilities, AI vendors are releasing enterprise-grade solutions at a quick pace. OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Salesforce, Oracle, and many other vendors are looking to cash in on booming AI demand.

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Premji Invest, Radical Ventures and ICONIQ Growth led the funding round. Writer’s backers include Salesforce, Adobe, Citi, IBM, and Workday venture arms, along with Accenture, Vanguard and other major tech venture capital investors. The company boasts a client list that includes Ally Bank, Qualcomm, Salesforce, Uber, and more.

Writer’s $1.9 billion valuation is quadruple the company’s September 2023 valuation of $500 million.

Bloomberg Intelligence expects GenAI to reach a market size of $1.3 trillion by 2032 with a compound annual growth rate of 43%. As of March 2024, the AI sector had 214 unicorns (companies with at least a $1 billion valuation) globally, according to Edge Delta. OpenAI is currently the most valuable of those companies with an $80 billion valuation.