OpenAI is experiencing a mergers and acquisitions crisis.
Days after acquiring database technology company Rockset, OpenAI has made the purchase Multi (previously Revelation), a startup developing an enterprise-centric collaboration platform with a primary focus on video. A source familiar with the matter said the deal is technically an acquisition and that almost all of Multi’s team – about five people – will join OpenAI once the deal closes.
Alexander Embiricos, Multi’s CEO and one of its co-founders, says Multi will close after July 24.
“We are extremely excited to announce that Multi is joining OpenAI,” wrote w post on the Multi blog. “Thank you to everyone who used Multi. It has been an honor to build with you and we have learned a lot from you.”
Together with Multi, Embiricos (former Dropbox product manager) and Multi’s other co-founder, Charley Ho (former Google software engineer), got down to build a Zoom-based platform designed for remote teams to collaborate via video chats. Many features offered, akin to the ability to collaborate on shared screens with as much as 10 people at the same time, customizable shortcuts and automatic deep links to code, projects and documents.
According to Crunchbase dataBefore Monday’s exit, Multi had raised $13 million in money from VC investors including Greylock and First Round Capital.
As with the Rockset purchase, the Multi transaction appears to be a part of OpenAI’s broader recent strategy of investing heavily in enterprise solutions. Most recently, OpenAI revealed that ChatGPT’s enterprise-level AI-powered viral chatbot platform has nearly 600,000 users, including 93% of all Fortune 500 firms.
In May, OpenAI signed an agreement with PwC to resell OpenAI tools to other firms. A month earlier, the company launched a business-oriented custom AI model tuning and consulting program.
The company’s purchases look like paying dividends, including: OpenAI’s revenue is expected to exceed $3.4 billion this 12 months, in line with The Information.
In the same vein as OpenAI’s other enterprise-focused products, will we one day see an improved version of ChatGPT with video conferencing and remote collaboration features? Maybe. I would not put it next to OpenAI – especially because of the lag between the organization’s flagship models lengthens.