Bret Taylor, co-founder and CEO of Sierra, is raising hundreds of millions of dollars in a new funding round that would value the AI startup at over $4 billion. This would more than triple Sierra’s valuation from a January deal that made it a unicorn. Taylor, who was previously co-CEO at Salesforce Inc., founded Sierra last year with former Google executive Clay Bavor.
The startup focuses on using AI to help corporate clients in areas such as customer service. The latest capital infusion, led by Greenoaks Capital, comes on top of about $110 million in previous funding.
Sierra’s multimillion-dollar capital boost
A person familiar with the deal, who asked to remain anonymous as the deal hasn’t closed, disclosed the details. A deal of this scale would give a boost to Taylor, who became one of the most important figures in the AI arena when he joined the board of OpenAI. Sierra’s financing emerged days after ChatGPT creator OpenAI completed one of the largest funding rounds in startup history, a $6.6 billion financing that conferred a $157 billion valuation on the generative AI pioneer.
The deal underscores optimism about the prospects for AI and investor willingness to bankroll increasingly costly artificial intelligence development, despite the lack of clear use cases or killer apps thus far. During a Bloomberg Television interview in San Francisco, California, on Feb. 14, 2024, Taylor dismissed concerns that his new enterprise AI chatbot startup, Sierra, could compete with ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Noah Nguyen is a multi-talented developer who brings a unique perspective to his craft. Initially a creative writing professor, he turned to Dev work for the ability to work remotely. He now lives in Seattle, spending time hiking and drinking craft beer with his fiancee.
