Prezent is a starzent that allows customers to build slide decks using generated AI, raising $20 million to further develop and refine AI models for a variety of use cases and expand into new markets.
AI has a wide variety of applications. One of these is generating decks for business presentations. Ready-made models tend to be less good at this as they don't understand industry-specific languages and terminology. That's where Prezent's technology comes into play.
Based in Los Altos, a subsidiary in Bengaluru, Prezent was founded in 2021 by Rajat Mishra. Rajat Mishra previously worked for companies such as Cisco and McKinsey. Mishra says he struggled to overcome stuttering and language disorders at a young age, which encouraged his interest in communication skills.
“Ideas [for Prezent] Wouldn't it be cool if we could democratize business communication and build an AI platform that would make everyone a great business communicator? ” Mishra told TechCrunch in an interview.
The Prezent platform allows users to upload assets and documents such as Excel files, PDFs, links, and provide Prezent's AI assistant called Astrid, and provide context about the company that is creating presentations. Users can also include team abbreviations and specific terms, as well as additional preferences and requirements.
Prezent uses openly available AI models tweaked with proprietary data, including datasets of 2 million slide decks, Mishra says, to power the platform. Startups also build AI models for specific applications, such as recommending layouts for users to use for specific decks.
Prezent's AI assistant, Astrid, offers suggestions notified from company data and Market.image credits: Prezent
For businesses with tight deadlines that want a little human Polish, Prezent offers a quick service that turns draft documents into what they describe as “professional grade” presentations. The service employs a combination of AI and human reviewers, including consultants and designers, and uses a spring-up final draft overnight.
Prezent claims to serve around 150 Fortune 2000 companies and targets Biopharma and Tech Industries customers. Mishra says new funding, all-capital investments and extensions for the April 2022 Series A in April 2022 will help them chase and expand their operations after potential clients in Europe, Japan and Singapore.
Prezent already has multiple customers in Europe and is looking to expand to Southeast Asia in the second quarter of this year. Last year, the company generated more than $10 million in recurring revenues per year, Mishra told TechCrunch.
Prezent will also launch the API to allow developers to use the model to create presentations directly from chatbots, apps, search engines, and more.
“Deepseek has recently shown that AI companies don't need these large funding rounds to make a bigger impact,” Mishra told TechCrunch, adding that Prezent currently has “nearby” employees, with 75% of them working remotely and based in India.
According to Mishra, Prezent's latest investment, which values ”a lot more” $100 million, is making Greycroft messaging with Zoom Ventures, Emergent Ventures and Westwave's participation. New investors True Global Ventures (TGV), Manulife Ventures and Alumni Ventures have also joined Tranche.