Humane Hunts Down $100 Million Series C

<p><strong><span class&equals;"legendSpanClass"><span class&equals;"xn-location">SAN FRANCISCO <&sol;span><&sol;span><&sol;strong>&&num;8212&semi; Humane Inc&period; announced it has raised a <span class&equals;"xn-money">&dollar;100 million<&sol;span> Series C round ahead of the reveal of its initial product offering this spring&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The round was led by Kindred Ventures with participation from existing investors Tiger Global&comma; Valia Ventures&comma; Qualcomm Ventures&comma; Forerunner Ventures&comma; Lachy Groom&comma; and <span class&equals;"xn-person">Sam Altman<&sol;span>&comma; founder of OpenAI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The round also included participation from new strategic investors and partners including Hico Capital &lpar;US based investment arm of SK networks&rpar;&comma; Microsoft&comma; Volvo Cars Tech Fund&comma; LG Technology Ventures&comma; Top Tier Capital&comma; Hudson Bay Capital&comma; and Socium Ventures&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Humane&comma; founded in 2018 by ex-Apple team <span class&equals;"xn-person">Imran Chaudhri<&sol;span> and <span class&equals;"xn-person">Bethany Bongiorno<&sol;span>&comma; is creating a first-of-its-kind software platform and consumer device built from the ground up for artificial intelligence &lpar;AI&rpar;&period; This raise will enable Humane to accelerate on its mission to deliver the next era of personal mobile computing&comma; which will be one driven by AI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Alongside investment&comma; Humane has secured strategic collaborations with some of the most influential technology companies in the world&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul >&NewLine;<li>Humane has partnered with <b>Microsoft<&sol;b> to bring its services platform to market&period; This will see Humane leverage the best cloud infrastructure in AI<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>A collaboration with <b>OpenAI<&sol;b> will integrate its technology into the Humane device and deliver OpenAI and Humane AI experiences at scale to consumers<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Humane&&num;8217&semi;s future global expansion plans include a collaboration with<b> SK Networks<&sol;b> &lpar;which covers the ICT device distribution business in Korea and has an extensive global network&rpar; to build on the shared ethos of creating meaningful change in consumer technologies<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>While the initial Humane device will be focused on delivering the next generation of personal technology&comma; the company is exploring ways to bring its solutions into new personal domains in the future&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul >&NewLine;<li>A collaboration with <b>LG<&sol;b> will see the companies working closely on potential R&amp&semi;D projects for the next phase of Humane products&comma; on the core technology included in future Humane devices and on integration into the home technology space<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Strategic investor <b>Volvo Cars Tech Fund<&sol;b> will work with Humane on a potential future collaboration which would be the first example of Humane&&num;8217&semi;s offering being applied to the automotive industry&period; Like Humane&comma; Volvo Cars develops technology to simplify life for its customers and the partnership is built on the shared values of safety&comma; trust and privacy<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p><b><span class&equals;"xn-person">Imran Chaudhri<&sol;span>&comma; Co-Founder of Humane&comma; said&colon; <&sol;b>&&num;8220&semi;Our first device will enable people to bring AI with them everywhere&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s an exciting time&comma; and we&&num;8217&semi;ve been focused on how to build the platform and device that can fully harness the true power and potential of this technology&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;