AI21 Labs today announced it has raised $34.5 million in equity capital to double-down on its AI technology and continue to build additional category-defining products in the race to build a leader in the AI language and writing category.

“We’re just getting started on our mission to create AI solutions that will help rethink how we read and write,” said AI21 co-founder Yoav Shoham. “We’ve got the team and we’ve got the vision to play in an area traditionally dominated by the tech giants, coupling deep technical innovation with compelling product experiences.”

The round was led by Pitango First, the Seed and Early Stage fund of Pitango’s investment platform, Israel's largest venture capital fund. Pitango First operates alongside Pitango Growth and Pitango HealthTech, all focusing on core technologies, deeptech, AI and ML. Among other investors is TPY Capital, also headquartered in Tel Aviv.

“AI21 Labs is a great company with an insanely strong team,” said Eyal Niv of Pitango. “They are focused on creating AI solutions that can be as transformative to human communication as the Gutenberg press. That’s a mission we want to support and play a role in.”

Last month AI21 Labs released its first product, Wordtune. Powered by AI technology breakthroughs, Wordtune is a true writing companion, helping distill your thoughts into just the right words, rather than a copyeditor focusing only on spelling and grammar mistakes. Users can use the system to rewrite whole sentences, make them more casual, more formal, shorter, or longer. Additional features include finding “tip of the tongue” missing words, “smart paste” which seamlessly fuses new text into an existing text, and more.

About AI21 Labs

AI21 Labs was formed by AI luminaries and veterans of the elite technology unit of Israel’s IDF, with the mission of building AI systems with an unprecedented capacity to understand and generate natural language. The company’s first product, Wordtune, is the first AI-based writing companion that understands context and meaning. The company is led by Yoav Shoham, Amnon Shashua, and Ori Goshen. The company is headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel. For more information visit www.AI21.com.