Copy.ais, an AI-powered platform for copywriting that generates tools for businesses customers on Twitter, raised another round of funding to celebrate its one-year anniversary.
The company raised $11 million in a Series A round led by Wing Venture Capital. Existing investors Sequoia and Craft Ventures participated, as well as new investors such as Tiger Global and Elad Gil. This round follows a March $2.9 million seed round and brings the total company funding to $13.9million.
Copy.ais software is $35 per month. It can create link descriptions for Facebook ads, and even generate a company slogan.
The company is now seeing $2.4 million in recurring revenue annually, one year after its co-founders Chris Lu and CEO Paul Yacoubian. Although the company is not yet profitable, it has doubled its revenue in the past year and now has 13 employees, Yacoubian explained to TechCrunch.
Although it had raised funding earlier in the year, Lu and he felt it was time to pursue a Series A to increase the team and to hire more engineers to support new product features. Editor is a new feature that allows users to save ideas, organize thoughts and make edits directly within the app. Copy.ai also develops products for long-form content production.
AI can pattern-match and when you give it more information about a company, it can assume its identity. Yacoubian said that we are also creating a product for teams so that as the AI learns more you can invite other business users.
The new capital will be used to hire. The company is remote-based and has employees across the country. Copy.ai has already helped over 300,000. Marketers use its tools like Ogilvy, Nestl, and eBay. Since the seed round, more than 3,000 people have signed up to get a free trial and there are over 10,000 premium customers.
Copy.ai is still early in AI natural language generation. Yacoubian stated that the company is only scratching the surface. The company will continue to improve its core app experience as well as the quality of the generated text.
They also got along with Wing Venture Capital partner Zach DeWitt. Yacoubian stated that Zach understands the founders' vision and how artificial intelligence can be used to help marketers.
Yacoubian said that while we often hear about AI taking away jobs, there is not much narrative to help you or your company create value. AI will continue to develop and it will become a source for empowerment and another tool with untapped potential. It's fascinating in the way it unlocks human capital and, in smaller companies that cannot afford full-time agents, provides a simple solution to their problem.
DeWitt stated that customers are increasingly moving online due to digital penetration. Companies must meet customers where they're at, via newsletters, blogs and social media.
Copy.ai's small-business customers revealed that there is a lot of content out there. AI allows founders or marketers to create great copy.
DeWitt used the product to create his first email to the company. DeWitt also has a weekly blog, and is active on Twitter. Copy.ais products are useful for him as he considers blog post ideas and content formats.
Wing said that the company was one of the fastest growing for a young company. They also use social media to share their metrics, which generates loyalty and allows them to learn in the public. This is what initially attracted Wing.
DeWitt said that this round was hugely oversubscribed. This gives you a good idea of the interest in their company, the quality and traction of their team, DeWitt explained. Chris and Paul had the luxury to choose the right investors to help them succeed in the future.
