SuSea, the parent company of the artificial intelligence (AI)-powered search engine You.com, is on the verge of closing a $50m Series B funding round, reports Reuters, citing sources.  

This investment is expected to propel SuSea’s valuation to between $700m and $900m.  

The funding is intended to bolster You.com’s position in the market for AI assistants, a sector that has garnered increased attention following the launch of ChatGPT. 

Venture capital company Georgian is leading the Series B funding for You.com, with additional support from existing investors, the sources told the publication.  

You.com has been utilised more than one billion times since its inception in 2020, they added. 

Despite initial interest in You.com’s AI search engine early in 2023, the company faces stiff competition from tech giants like  Microsoft and Google, which have integrated AI into their search offerings, drawing some of You.com’s potential users. 

In response to the challenging market conditions, SuSea, which is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, has evolved its platform to focus on productivity and internet search through an AI assistant.  

Its CEO Richard Socher, previously Salesforce’s chief scientist, has highlighted the assistant’s capabilities to generate text and code, as well as sift through technologies to provide accurate answers. 

You.com distinguishes itself with a $15 monthly premium consumer subscription, undercutting the roughly $20 charged by its competitors such as OpenAI. 

Despite declining visitor numbers and app downloads, You.com’s sales are reportedly increasing.  

Since January 2024, the company has seen a five-fold growth in annual recurring revenue from both consumer and business-to-business subscriptions, the sources said.  

The news follows a recent €600m ($642m) Series B investment in France’s Mistral AI, which has raised more than €1bn for its expansion, particularly into the US market.