Continua secures $8M to put AI assistants inside everyday group chats

Continua raised $8 million to place artificial intelligence (AI) agents inside everyday group text conversations on SMS, iMessage, and Discord.

The New York startup, founded by former Google engineer David Petrou, announced the funding round on Tuesday. GV led the investment, with Bessemer Venture Partners and angel investors participating.

Petrou left Google after 17 years building products like Google Goggles and Google Glass. He started Continua in 2023 after watching people copy answers from ChatGPT into their group chats with friends.

“The simple way to think about it is that we’re bringing the power of LLMs to group chats,” Petrou told TechCrunch.

The AI agent can set reminders when friends plan trips. It launches polls to help groups decide on restaurants. When conversations turn into actual plans, it creates calendar invites and Google Docs with to-do lists.

Users add Continua by including its phone number in group texts or username in Discord chats. Friends can also message the AI privately to ask about forgotten details like meeting times or locations.

Most AI chatbots work best in one-on-one conversations. Petrou said adapting large language models for group dynamics proved surprisingly difficult.

“You want the agent to have social intelligence,” he explained to TechCrunch. His team had to “break the LLM’s brain” to make it join conversations naturally without responding to every message.

Groups can tell Continua to “hang back” if it participates too much. The AI learns when to jump in and when to stay quiet.

Consumer group chats represent an underserved market in AI development. Most companies focus on business applications like Slack integrations and workplace productivity tools.

But 88% of people used chatbots in 2023, according to research from Exploding Topics. Personal coordination often happens in the same messy group chats where friends plan dinners and weekend trips.

Erik Nordlander, a general partner at GV, said his firm invested in Petrou before the Continua concept fully developed. “David is a really brilliant engineer, someone who’s been working with AI since before it was the hot thing,” Nordlander told TechCrunch.

The company plans to hire engineers and polish its product with the new funding. Future revenue could come from charging for event planning and trip booking services.

Meta and startup Hey Umai offer competing AI conversation tools. Petrou believes Continua works better for group interactions than existing alternatives.

The startup aims to turn chaotic group chats into organized workflows. Users stay in familiar messaging apps instead of switching between different planning tools.