Anyone who works at a computer for more than eight hours a day knows the amount of tool and “context switching” required to stay productive: “Where did I put that file?”, “How do I manage all my Bluetooth devices?”, “How quickly can I switch from my to-do list to GitHub to a web search?”
Of course, this isn't rocket science, but Raycast aims to make that task easier by providing integrated and quick access to applications, files, commands, and workflows through a keyboard-based interface. Essentially, it's about bringing a little order to chaos with so-called “shortcuts to everything.” This could be creating a shortcut to launch a specific app, open a new browser tab, create a GitHub pull request, or send a pre-written text message to tell your partner you're running late.
A key part of the Raycast platform is extensions – essentially small programs that users can access to extend the functionality of Raycast, improve integration with third-party tools and services, and automate time-consuming tasks.
Raycast extension. Image credit: Raycast
Founded in London in 2020, Raycast is the brainchild of former Facebook engineers Thomas Paul Mann (CEO) and Petr Nikolaev (CTO), who left Meta about five years ago to address pain points they faced in their own work.
“We started Raycast to solve a problem for ourselves as developers,” Mann told TechCrunch. “We felt like we had too many tools to deal with on a daily basis. They were taking away from our focus, so we wanted a way to quickly access all the information we needed to do our work.”
Initially targeted primarily at developers, Raycast has evolved over the last few years into more of a “prosumer” tool — meaning anyone whose life or work revolves around a computer.
“The majority of our users are developers, but we're seeing that change. We're seeing designers, product managers, journalists, and anyone who's 'techy' and works on a computer for eight hours a day fall into this category,” Mann said. “This is just a way to make people more efficient.”
Raycast search with calendar events. Image credit: Raycast
Raycast has previously only been available for Mac, but the company today announced it will be expanding to iOS and Windows. To back it up, the company has raised $30 million in a Series B round led by European venture capital firm Atomico, with participation from a number of notable investors, including Accel, Coatue, Y Combinator (YC), Atlassian's venture capital arm, and World Innovation Lab.
In the spotlight
Raycast is somewhat similar to Mac's built-in Spotlight search feature, but also to Windows Search, and can be compared to third-party applications such as Alfred, which has been in the Mac launcher space for over a decade.
Raycast aims to maximize demand for its productivity tools by not only going cross-platform, but also doubling down on its recent investments in artificial intelligence (AI).
The company offers a range of plans, including a free plan that offers the core functionality. The Pro plan, which costs $8 per month, unlocks a host of additional tools, such as cloud sync for users who work on multiple computers, translation, custom themes, and its flagship feature, Raycast AI, which provides AI search capabilities. Raycast AI also provides quick access to simple services like suggested headlines for blog posts. Additionally, Raycast AI also has a dedicated AI chat feature, which rivals the likes of ChatGPT in terms of conversation flow.
One of the distinguishing elements of this feature is that it allows users to centrally query all major large-scale language models (LLMs), including OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama, and Google’s Gemini.
Raycast AIImage credit: Raycast
Raycast claims to have “hundreds of thousands” of daily active users and a community of more than 20,000 developers building extensions on top of the product. The launch of Raycast Pro last year was the company's first serious attempt at monetization, but Mann declined to reveal how much traction the subscription service has garnered in the 16 months since its launch, though he said it was crucial to the company's latest funding round.
“We don’t share much about our revenues, [pro plan] “That's what's kept us busy and that's basically what got us funded,” Mann said. “It's been really well-received by our user base, which continues to grow significantly, so we thought we should make Raycast available to just about anyone who works with a computer.”
Cross-platform
Starting today, Raycast is opening up a waiting list for access to its new iOS app, which is already in alpha and is expected to be released early next year, while development for a Windows app has already begun, but that might take a bit longer.
What's noteworthy about iPhone apps is, of course, that they're quite different from what users are used to on the Mac. For starters, people use their phones differently than they do their computers, but Apple also gives developers deeper system access in macOS compared to iOS, allowing them to do more.
“We think of our iOS app as a companion,” Mann said. “The first thing that's going to happen is AI, so you can have raycast AI in your pocket. [LLM] Using the models we provide, you can ask everyday questions and carry on a conversation right from your Mac.”
On the Windows side, Microsoft is also providing decent system-wide access, which will allow Raycast to offer a similar product to what it offers on MacOS, with some differences of course.
“Windows itself is pretty open, so there are some additional features that we can add that you can't get on MacOS. There are also features that don't exist on both platforms, so we're still exploring that,” Mann said. “Because they're different operating systems, both apps have their own unique features.”
Mockup screenshot of what Raycast looks like on Windows. Image credit: Raycast
Raycast currently employs 30 people, three-quarters of whom are engineers, and the entire team is based in Europe, with the two founders in London.
The company has previously raised $17.7 million in two funding rounds, both led by Accel and with Coatue co-leading a $15 million Series A in 2021. Other notable investors in the Series B round include the aforementioned institutional investors, as well as GitHub CEO Thomas Domke, Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke, and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.
“When we started, we had a really niche audience of Mac users and developers,” Mann said. “Then with Mac, we expanded into the prosumer market. And when you think about Windows, the user base is several orders of magnitude larger, and a lot of people use it for work. So it was a natural fit for us to go there, and with the funding we can accelerate that.”