Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq, and Menlo Ventures invest in Pinecone’s AI platform for vector data storage
Pinecone Systems Inc. has raised $100 million in a funding round, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq, Menlo Ventures, and Wing Venture Capital, valuing the AI platform at $750 million. The New York-based startup provides vector data storage for large language models and has gained significant interest from businesses looking to build AI-powered applications. Pinecone’s customers include Shopify Inc., HubSpot Inc., Zapier Inc., and Gong, and the company added 1,400 paying clients in Q1 2023 alone. According to CEO Edo Liberty, the investment will be used for research and development, hiring, and scaling up the business. Peter Levine, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz, believes Pinecone’s infrastructure will enable AI as a property of every new application.
Pinecone’s platform is unique because it offers vector databases, which serve as the long-term memory for AI tools. It allows businesses to build AI-powered applications that intelligently converse about proprietary data. Pinecone’s vector databases are a core component of the infrastructure that supports large language models, including chatbots and are vital to enabling more effective data analysis across industries.
Pinecone’s latest funding round marks a significant milestone for the company, which was last valued at $168 million after raising $28 million in a Series A round led by Menlo Ventures in February 2022. The new investment will help Pinecone continue growing and expanding its customer base while investing in research and development to enhance its platform further.
Peter Wagner, the founding partner at Wing Venture Capital, believes that Pinecone’s technology represents the next supercycle in B2B technology as businesses increasingly turn to AI-powered applications to gain a competitive edge. “We’re investing in the AI-led transformation of businesses, and Pinecone is at the forefront of that transformation,” he said in a recent interview.