Silicon Valley executives are investing in a new AI startup called Ema, an Enterprise Machine Assistant that has emerged from stealth mode. The startup looks like another generative AI enterprise obtaining funds in a bustling US market. Its basic functionality enhances customer support and automates tasks performed by engineers and data scientists at tech companies.

Most notably, Ema acquired almost a dozen enterprise customers in under a year without a demo or prototype. The actual assistant was launched as an AI employee at these clients, automating various tasks. Ema also has a unique revenue model.

Furthermore, the startup raised $25 million over its seed and Series A rounds from elite Silicon Valley founders and executives. High-profile investors include Sheryl Sandberg, former Meta COO, Jerry Yang, Yahoo co-founder, and Dustin Moskovitz, Facebook and Asana co-founder. Other notable investors encompass Ribbit Capital founder Micky Malka and Snowflake CEO Sridhar Ramaswamy.

VC firms such as Accel, Section 32, and Prosus Ventures led these funding rounds, with other participants including Wipro Ventures, Venture Highway, AME Cloud Ventures, Frontier Ventures, Maum Group, and Firebolt Ventures.

Surojit Chatterjee, the founder and CEO of Ema, is a Silicon Valley veteran with product leadership roles at Google, Coinbase, and Flipkart spanning over 25 years. He attributes the successful gathering of such a captable at an early stage to his strong industry network. The belief of these high-profile figures in the company’s vision resulted in an oversubscription in all of its funding situations.

The fresh capital will be primarily allocated to research and technology development, the go-to-market strategy, and team expansion. Currently, the startup employs 30 people across India and the US with plans to hire in both regions.

Chatterjee claims that Ema’s AI model can match or even exceed human performance. Chatterjee believes Ema’s distinguishing feature is its capability of incorporating feedback into its functions, facilitating quick role transitions.

For instance, Ema can function as a pharmacist’s assistant to accelerate prior authorisation for medical procedures or drug administration. These kinds of solutions are beneficial in developed countries where healthcare services are expensive and require prior authorisation.

The startup’s clients include Envoy Global, an immigration service provider, TrueLayer, a financial services infrastructure startup, and financial app Moneyview.

Source: Why top Silicon Valley executives are investing in new AI startup Ema }}.