You.com Takes on Google with Complex Queries

AI-powered productivity engine, You.com has raised $50 million in Series B funding. You.com is an AI search engine that helps users get responses to complex questions.

According to Yahoo Finance, the new You.com funding will enable the AI company to excel whereas other rivals that raise billions fail.

Getting Better

You.com’s founder and CEO, Richard Socher says his company challenges itself to be better than Google. According to Socher, the You.com Google competition would be futile if its based on simple queries that constitute the bulk of Google searches- which include basic facts, references, and conversions.

“People willing to pay for You.com are people that do productive knowledge work. And this is actually where the sweet spot, where the killer app for this technology is- making this a productivity engine, telling these agents when and how to search the internet,” Socher says.

You.com launched in 2021. Since then, the AI-search engine has responded to 1 billion queries and attracted millions of users across tech unicorns, hedge funds, and public companies. Its biggest competitor, Google is currently embroiled in multiple antitrust cases after a US Judge termed it an illegal monopoly.

Idea Behind You.Com

Although the term productivity engine may not define You.com intuitively, the idea behind the AI-search engine is to use natural language to inform the system about what the user wants to know, irrespective of complexity.

“When we first started You.com, we saw an opportunity to reinvent the gateway to everyone’s online journey. Billions of questions were being answered every day with a list of blue links, but our users wanted more. We built You.com to enhance productivity, inspire new thinking, and develop a deeper understanding of the world through human-AI collaboration,” Socher explains.

You.com uses AI agents to help users find the information they need. For instance, a user can ask the system to ‘summarize literature on side effects of paracetamol’. Language models would probably not answer such a question. You.com focuses on performing such demanding tasks. The query is first examined to enable AI agents to find the right information and techniques.

“Our AI agents help millions of knowledge workers be more productive, whether it’s through fast, accurate answers, research and analysis, problem-solving, or content creation,” Socher adds.

Comparable Service

When it comes to business, You.com says its services compare favorably as it continues to grow its paying customer base. This year alone, the AI-search platform has increased its subscriber base fivefold. The company says its AI-search platform is currently serving large companies in the market.

“The unit economies for large enterprise deals are positive, and some companies are using us millions of times per day. Companies are raising money so they can give away their product for free, and ads haven’t really been figured out for chat. We’ve been more careful about this, and we think it’s time for us to scale,” Socher says.

You.com’s latest funding round was led by Georgian. Big tech names like Nvidia, Salesforce Ventures, DuckDuckGo, Day One Ventures, and SBVA participated in the funding round. The new funding is expected to significantly boost You.com’s valuation having brought the company’s total funding to $99 billion.