Engram Raises $98M to Cut AI Token Costs for Enterprise Clients

Engram raised $98 million on Tuesday from investors including General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia, as well as OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. The 8-month-old startup aims to help companies reduce AI operational costs by building what it calls the "learned memory" of AI. The funding comes as corporate America begins scrutinizing untamed AI usage by developers, creating demand for cost-optimization solutions in enterprise AI deployment.

Engram Raises $98 Million From General Catalyst and Sequoia

The startup announced on Tuesday that it secured $98 million in funding from General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia. OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy, who recently joined Anthropic, also participated in the round. The 13-person company plans to use the funding to support compute and talent.

Engram Claims Models Use 100 Times Fewer Tokens

Engram says its models can recall organization-specific workflows and context to anticipate questions and give smarter responses with cheaper output. The company claims its models can match or outperform frontier labs using up to 100 times fewer tokens, which are the currency for running AI queries. Leigh Marie Braswell, a partner at Kleiner, said Engram "maps out your organization and offers orders of magnitude cheaper output."

Microsoft and Notion Join Engram Client Roster

Less than a year after its founding, Engram has accrued a client roster that includes Microsoft, Notion and legal AI startup Harvey. The company dubs itself the "learned memory" of AI, a name derived from the neuroscience term for a trace of memory in the brain.

Dan Biderman Brings Computational Neuroscience Background to Engram

Dan Biderman, Engram's co-founder and CEO, pursued a PhD in computational neuroscience at Columbia University and later joined Stanford University's AI lab. Working at Stanford, Biderman recognized what he calls the "genius stranger model" — the idea that AI is smart, but its memory is much more limited than it seems. Biderman admits that Engram's models aren't "absolutely better" than those from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic, but he says they excel at specializing — sometimes at the expense of other capabilities.

FAQ

What did Engram announce on Tuesday?

Engram announced on Tuesday that it raised $98 million from investors including General Catalyst, Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia, and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy.

How many tokens does Engram claim its models use compared to frontier labs?

Engram claims its models can match or outperform frontier labs using up to 100 times fewer tokens, which are the currency for running AI queries.

Who are Engram's current clients?

Engram's client roster includes Microsoft, Notion, and legal AI startup Harvey. The company has accrued these clients less than a year after its founding.