Typeface, which is building generative AI for brands, raises $100 million at $1 billion valuation

In 2022, Abhay Parasnis, former CTO of Adobe, founded Typeface, a generative AI startup focused on enterprise use cases. With it, he hoped to leverage the generative AI that was just starting to become trendy at the time to deliver personalized content for brands at scale.

The typeface, thanks in part to the excitement for generative AI, caught on quickly, attracting Fortune 500 customers in its first year, as well as partnerships with Salesforce and Google Cloud. And perhaps more importantly, it has won over investors, who have injected hundreds of millions of dollars into the startup this week.

Today, Typeface closed a $100 million Series B round led by Salesforce Ventures with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona, GV (Google Ventures), Menlo Ventures and M12 (Microsofts Venture Fund). Valuing the startup at $1 billion, the tranche brings Typefaces’ total to $165 million.

Parasnis says the new capital will go towards expanding the Typefaces platform and growing the company’s team.

Business leaders are telling us all that they want to embrace generative AI, but need a solution that meets their unique requirements and is enterprise-ready, Parasnis said via email. They require an AI platform that keeps up with the lightning pace of innovation and feels like a natural extension of their brand. They also need assurance that their valuable proprietary content remains secure and confidential while integrating seamlessly into their existing workflows.

The Typeface platform is made up of three key components, Parasnis explained, the first being a content hub where users can upload assets and guidelines for generating branded text and images. The second, called Blend, uses artificial intelligence to train and personalize content based on a brand’s voice and style. As for the third, Flow, it provides templates and workflows designed to integrate into existing apps and systems.

Image credits: Typeface

Using the typeface, a content marketing manager could generate an Instagram post or at least a product image and caption to promote a new product launch using brand-approved words and assets. Or a demand generation manager at a business-to-business software-as-a-service company could repurpose a video of the event into a blog post, a follow-up email to attendees, and more.

We provide companies with a suite of secure, self-service solutions that enable any employee to produce on-brand content from their content workflows,” Parasnis said.

There is no shortage of companies in the generative AI space now. (See Jasper AI, for example, which also recently raised about $100 million at a roughly $1 billion valuation.) So what makes Typeface different?

For one thing, Parasnis argues that Typeface places a greater emphasis on brand governance, content security, and privacy than most of its competitors. The platform provides dedicated AI models for each client, ostensibly ensuring their assets and activities remain private.

What’s not entirely clear is whether typeface designs and the content they produce could be subject to legal challenges down the line. The pending cases against popular AI art tools Midjourney and Stability AI claim they have infringed the rights of millions of artists by training their tools on images scraped from the web. Meanwhile, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has yet to issue clear guidance on copyright protection for AI-generated works.

Parasnis anticipates no headwinds, stating that Typeface’s customers own all the assets they generate on the platform.

Every part of the business needs engaging, personalized content to drive results, and that too, more at a rapid pace, he said. Typeface revolutionizes the way businesses distribute content, enabling every aspect of the organization to achieve exceptional results with unprecedented speed.

It may not matter for now. The risks don’t appear to dampen the enthusiasm for generative AI. According to a survey by FreshBooks, 25% of entrepreneurs say they are currently using or testing generative AI tools, while two in three say they will try generative AI for work within the next 12 months.

The VCs aren’t backing down either, of course. Venture firms have steadily increased their positions in generative AI, from $408 million in 2018 to $4.8 billion in 2021 to $4.5 billion in 2022, according to a PitchBook report released in March. Angel and seed numbers also grew, with 107 deals and $358.3 million invested in 2022 compared to just $41 million and $102.8 million in 2018.

With significant enterprise demand for custom generative AI, we must rapidly expand our platform and continuously innovate to meet the unique needs of enterprises, Parasnis said. Additionally, we will expand our outstanding team with deep experience in AI, software-as-a-service, and enterprise marketing to enrich the value we deliver to our growing community. This funding serves as a catalyst for a robust product roadmap and go-to-market expansion, enabling companies to easily generate personalized content at every customer touchpoint, securely and within their streams existing corporate jobs.