OpenAI is on a M&A spree.
Days after acquiring database technology company Rockset, OpenAI bought Multi (previously Movement), a startup developing an enterprise-focused, video-first collaboration platform. A source familiar with the matter says the deal is technically an acquisition and that most of Multi’s team — about five people — will join OpenAI after the deal closes.
Alexandros Empirikos, CEO of Multi and one of its co-founders, says that Multi will close after July 24.
“We are very excited to share that Multi is joining OpenAI,” he wrote in one Position on Multi’s blog. “Thank you to everyone who used Multi. It’s been a privilege building with you and we’ve learned a lot from you.”
With Multi, Embiricos (former Dropbox product manager) and Multi’s second co-founder, Charley Ho (former Google software engineer), set out to build a Zoom-based platform designed for remote teams to collaborate via video chat . Multiple features offered, such as the ability to collaborate on screen shares of up to 10 people simultaneously, customizable shortcuts, and automatic deep links for code, designs, and documents.
According to Crunchbase dataMulti raised $13 million in cash from VCs including Greylock and First Round Capital before Monday’s exit.
As with the Rockset purchase, the Multi deal appears to fit OpenAI’s broader recent strategy of investing heavily in business solutions. OpenAI recently revealed that the enterprise tier of its viral AI chatbot platform, ChatGPT, had nearly 600,000 users, including 93% of all Fortune 500 companies.
In May, OpenAI signed an agreement with PwC to resell OpenAI tools to other businesses. Last month, the company launched a program to coordinate and advise business-oriented custom AI models.
The buying business seems to be paying dividends, with OpenAI’s revenue is expected to exceed $3.4 billion this year, according to the Information.
Along the lines of OpenAI’s other product efforts for enterprise purposes, could we one day see a developed ChatGPT with video conferencing and remote collaboration capabilities? It can. I wouldn’t put it past OpenAI – particularly as far as latency between the organization’s top models lengthens.
