San Francisco based tech company Grammarly announced today that it has received $90 million in its latest funding round. Taking all of its prior financing sessions into account, this sums up the total funds raised by the company since its inception in 2009 to a grand total of $200 million.
The recent financing round saw the return of old investors as well as the addition of new ones and was led by fellow American venture capital firm General Catalyst. Hemant Taneja, the managing director at General Catalyst, spoke about the company"s role as a returning investor:
"We first invested in Grammarly to help them evolve into a platform that could improve written communication everywhere it happens. The company"s ability to attract the talent needed to grow that platform continues to impress us, and today we’re excited to increase our investment to achieve their worthy mission."
Grammarly plans to pour the finances raised in improving its existing AI-based technology and has its sights set to building a "full-fledged communications assistant" for consumers and businesses alike down the line. The $90M investment will also be used to expand the company"s product reach and to advance the product development process.
Brad Hoover, CEO of Grammarly, commented:
"Communication is a fundamental human need that helps us all connect and thrive. But effective communication requires talent and time, and it can be very challenging. Grammarly’s AI fills this gap by empowering people worldwide—both native and non-native English writers, for personal, professional, and academic reasons—to communicate clearly and effectively.”
Another area to be improved by the AI-powered writing assistant"s creator is its "tone detector" technology, a beta version of which was released a few weeks ago. Grammarly plans on diverting some of the funds raised to further advance the "tone" feature to provide better language recommendations to its users.
Aside from its popular Google Chrome extension tool which offers grammar checks and features like better vocabulary suggestions and synonyms, Grammarly also offers a wide range of similar AI-powered writing improvements tools such as the Grammarly Keyboard for Android and iOS which is aimed at the general masses, and its designated business product - Grammarly Business - which is tailor-made to meet a business"s needs.