The concept of knowledge management was born in the 90s. The idea is that the company's memory is locked inside its employees, who know the ins and outs of various systems. The problem was to record and update that knowledge. Scribe, a San Francisco-based startup, has figured out a way to easily capture and document internal processes in an automated way.
The company says the idea is clearly resonating with customers, with revenue increasing by a whopping 400% last year. Growth like this will no doubt attract the attention of investors, and the company today announced a $25 million Series B, which is certainly a healthy amount by today's standards.
CEO and co-founder Jennifer Smith said the idea behind the company is very simple. Some people know how to enter leads into a CRM or sign up for a 401(k). Some companies maintain wikis or hold Zoom meetings to share knowledge, but we wanted to make it easier.
“You press the record button, do something, press stop recording, and it automatically generates a document with all your written instructions,” Smith told TechCrunch. The written instructions include steps to complete the process using screenshots that are automatically generated from the recording.
“And you can share that with everyone who needs to go through that process on the other side. So the idea is to expand the expertise that exists in people's heads and was previously very siled. . And we do it automatically. It's always in the flow of work,” she said.
These instructions can be embedded into applications, allowing more complex multipart processes to be broken down and grouped into more manageable chunks. The idea is to keep the instructions within the process so you don't have to switch contexts to find them, she said.
The five-year-old company was founded long before generative AI, but it can benefit from the technology and has been exploring ways to incorporate it into its products. “This is about scaling expertise and generative AI. Like I said, we never dreamed we would have such powerful tools at our disposal so quickly, so we're building towards that. We’re making progress,” she said.
Smith says the company currently serves 97% of Fortune 500 companies and is cash flow positive. They were now able to raise funding, despite not spending most of his $22 million in Series A. This is a good position to be in at a time when many startups are struggling to raise investment funds.
The company currently has nearly 50 employees, but the plan is to double the company to 100 employees over the next year or so. In doing this, she wants to ensure that the company does not lose its cultural identity as it grows.
“I've seen a lot of companies that have scaled more quickly in terms of number of employees. You can argue why you want to do that, but it's always going to put a strain on the culture, so I don't think so. “I would rather grow in a really measured way and run out of resources if necessary, but do it in a way that preserves our culture,” she said.
Today's round, totaling $55 million, was led by Redpoint Ventures with participation from New York Life Ventures and existing investors Amplify Partners, Tiger Global, and XYZ Ventures. It's interesting that a process-focused industry like insurance is investing in the company.