Citigroup Invests in Enterprise AI Startup Glean

AI startup Glean which focuses on enterprise AI search and knowledge discovery has secured a US$2.2 billion valuation in its latest funding round, attracting investments from Citigroup, Databricks, and Workday, among others.

Glean's latest funding round amounted to US$ 200 million, with Citigroup joining established tech and venture firms in supporting the growing AI enterprise.

Glean's annualized revenue at the close of January soared to US$ 39 million, a significant increase from the previous year's US$ 10 million. Leveraging advancements in AI, Glean incorporates LLMs to generate natural-sounding responses based on minimal written input. 

“When people are excited about the potential of a technology relative to other things, people are willing to pay a higher valuation, because they’re excited about the market potential,” Arvind Purushotham, head of Citi Ventures, told CNBC in an interview.

Glean competes directly with Microsoft's Copilot for Microsoft 365, offering a chat tool powered by generative AI. Jain sees OpenAI, provider of LLMs, as a strategic partner in enhancing Glean's AI assistant capabilities.

Glean's clientele includes organizations such as Confluent, Databricks, and Sony Electronics. With one client having over 100,000 users and another in the process of deploying Glean to over 100,000 employees, the startup has found success beyond its initial tech industry target, seeking expansion into financial services, retail, manufacturing, and other sectors.

The Palo Alto-based startup, founded four years ago and currently boasting 337 employees, envisions expanding its workforce to 700 by year-end.

Citigroup's interest in Glean arose from its Markets business segment, where the tech team sought efficient data search and summarization capabilities. While Citigroup has yet to pay for Glean's services, a pilot evaluation is planned, potentially leading to a customer relationship.