On May 23, 2023, Anthropic announced it had closed a $450 million Series C funding round led by Spark Capital, with participation from Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures and others. The company said the proceeds will be used to scale its AI products and further develop reliable systems.
Purpose of the funding
Anthropic was founded to build AI products people can rely on and to produce research about AI’s opportunities and risks. The announced funding is intended to support growth of Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant, expand product offerings, and advance AI safety research.
Technical priorities and product features
- Anthropic is focusing on AI-alignment techniques aimed at helping systems better handle adversarial conversations, follow precise instructions, and be more transparent about their behavior and limitations.
- The company is also developing features such as 100K context windows, which allow submitting hundreds of pages of material for Claude to analyze and digest.
Board appointment
As part of the Series C round, Yasmin Razavi, a General Partner at Spark Capital who focuses on growth-stage software investments, joined Anthropic’s Board of Directors. Razavi expressed support for Anthropic’s mission and praised the company’s technical team and approach to building safe and capable AI systems.
Governance and Public Benefit orientation
Anthropic said that over the past year it has refined its governance structure to better align with its Public Benefit orientation. The company noted investor support for exploring different corporate governance approaches and indicated it will share more details in the coming months.
Team growth and market deployment
The new funding will be used to grow Anthropic’s product and research teams, support businesses that responsibly deploy Claude in the market, and meet increasing demand for reliable, trustworthy AI technologies. Anthropic invited interested partners and developers to get in touch about working with Claude.
Dates and named participants
Announcement date: May 23, 2023. Amount: $450 million. Lead investor: Spark Capital. Other named participants: Google, Salesforce Ventures, Sound Ventures, Zoom Ventures.
