Imbue, an artificial intelligence (AI) research lab, has raised $200m in a Series B funding round at a more than $1bn valuation.

The round saw participation from technology-focused non-profit Astera Institute, NVIDIA, Notion co-founder Simon Last, Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt and other undisclosed investors.

Based in San Francisco, California, Imbue is engaged in developing large language models that form the backbone of AI tools.

Imbue, formerly known as Generally Intelligent, said it will use the funding to accelerate the development of its AI systems that will be capable of reasoning and coding.

It aims to develop “practical AI agents that can accomplish larger goals and safely work for us in the real world.”

To achieve this, the startup trains its foundation models that are optimised for reasoning.

How well do you really know your competitors?

Access the most comprehensive Company Profiles on the market, powered by GlobalData. Save hours of research. Gain competitive edge.

Company Profile – free sample

Thank you!

Your download email will arrive shortly

Not ready to buy yet? Download a free sample

We are confident about the unique quality of our Company Profiles. However, we want you to make the most beneficial decision for your business, so we offer a free sample that you can download by submitting the below form

By GlobalData
Visit our Privacy Policy for more information about our services, how we may use, process and share your personal data, including information of your rights in respect of your personal data and how you can unsubscribe from future marketing communications. Our services are intended for corporate subscribers and you warrant that the email address submitted is your corporate email address.

Currently, Imbue uses its models to create agents that can be deployed internally, beginning with coding agents.

“Ultimately, we hope to release systems that enable anyone to build robust, custom AI agents that put the productive power of AI at everyone’s fingertips,” the company said in a blog post.

Kanjun Qiu co-founded Imbue (then Generally Intelligent) in 2021.

The company emerged out of stealth in October 2022 following a $20m funding round, reported TechCrunch.

With the latest funding, Imbue has joined other well-funded AI startups in recent months.

These include Google-backed Anthropic, which raised $450m in May; Cohere, which announced $270m in Series C funding in June and Israel-based AI startup AI21 Labs, which secured $155m in funding last week.