Israeli artificial intelligence (AI) startup AI21 Labs has extended its Series C funding round with $53.5m in new investment.

Intel Capital, Comcast Ventures, and Ahren Innovation Capital joined the extended funding round.

With the latest capital infusion, the AI company has now raised $208m in Series C and $336m in overall funding at a $1.4bn valuation.

AI21’s other investors include Google, NVIDIA, b2venture, Pitango, Samsung Next, SCB10X and Walden Catalyst.

Founded in 2017, AI21 offers advanced large language models and natural language technologies to businesses through applications and application programming interfaces.

The company plans to use the additional capital to support its business-first approach and accelerate the development of its task-specific AI models.

AI21 explained that its models focus on specific natural language processing tasks such as grounded question answering and summarisation to increase accuracy as per its client’s requirements.

Headquartered in Tel Aviv, AI21’s offerings include a developer platform, called AI21 Studio, which can be used to build generative AI-powered applications and services.

It also offers Wordtune, a consumer-focused reading and writing assistant.

AI21 co-CEO and co-founder Ori Goshen said: “This funding will enable AI21 to increase mindshare that one size does not fit all, as enterprises look for unique partners that understand their specific needs.

“Mass deployment of AI requires a deep understanding of high-performance language models that can deliver better value and impact. Our approach is about designing AI with purpose, making it significantly more efficient than building from scratch, and much more cost-effective.”  

Intel Capital head and corporate vice-president Anthony Lin said: “The AI21 full-stack offering combines foundation models with successful applications and operation tools that will help enterprises accelerate GenAI adoption to increase productivity and affect their bottom and top line.”