Quora raised $75M from a16z to grow Poe, its AI chat bot platform

Quora raised $75M from a16z to grow Poe, its AI chat bot platform

Quora has embarked on a new funding journey after nearly seven years, securing a significant investment of $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). This funding injection is earmarked for the advancement of Poe, Quora's AI chat platform.

What sets Quora's AI chatbots apart is their focus on nurturing a creator economy within the AI landscape. Instead of relying solely on traditional revenue streams like YouTube ad earnings, creators can now monetize their inventive AI bots through Quora's innovative monetization program.

CEO Adam D'Angelo emphasized the company's commitment to supporting creators by allocating a substantial portion of the funding towards compensating bot creators. Even developers who integrate bots with Poe's AI infrastructure stand to benefit financially from this program.

Poe boasts an extensive array of text and image AI models, including popular ones like ChatGPT and DALL-E 3, providing creators with a vast toolkit to unleash their creativity.

While Quora's latest valuation stands at $500 million, a decline from its previous peak, the company sees this as an opportunity to align with the changing market dynamics. Rising interest rates and evolving capital costs have necessitated this adjustment, but Quora remains optimistic about its future prospects.

Since Poe's inception about a year ago, Quora has been gaining momentum steadily. D'Angelo revealed that the platform witnessed its highest usage week ever recently, with over 400 million monthly unique visitors.

Moreover, with Poe's mobile app surpassing 250,000 downloads in its debut month and accumulating over 18.4 million installs by October, the platform has garnered substantial traction. Currently, Poe ranks among the top five largest generative AI-related properties, with creators developing over a million bots on the platform.

The funding from a16z signifies a pivotal moment for Quora and Poe, enabling them to capitalize on their growing user base and propel further expansion in the AI chatbot domain.