AI-driven note-taking tool Granola is falling into the role. The startup has seen a sharp rise since it was used thanks to word of mouth between VCs and founders since it started a year ago, but it appears that the big drivers are using it to do more than its core pitch.
Granola co-founder Chris Pedragel told TechCrunch that its users are increasingly using Granola to take personal notes. “[People] They have lots of meetings so they have granola open all day, so that's what […] Where they are starting to live,” he said.
According to Pedragel, Granola's organic popularity among high-tech audiences and diverse use cases has helped its user base grow by 10% each week since its launch, but it has not specified the current number of users.
Behind its rapid growth and popularity, Granola said Wednesday it raised $43 million in a Series B funding round led by Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross venture company NFDG at a $250 million valuation.
The round also saw participation from existing investors Lightspeed and Spark, as well as angel investors such as Vercel's Guillermo Rauch, Replit's Amjad Masad, Shopify's Tobi Lutke and Linear's Karri Saarinen. The round will increase the company's total funding to $67 million.
Image credits: Granola
In addition to this funding, Granola is expanding its mission to make it more useful for businesses beyond the current single-user focus. This launches a new collaboration feature that allows users to share notes with their teammates and transcripts, allowing the app's AI to take advantage of the wide pool of notes for surface insights.
Users within an organization can create custom folders for a variety of collaborative use cases, including sales calls, customer feedback, and hiring. The app also allows users to share meeting notes with people who do not use Granola and chat with AI to ask questions.
Other meeting transcription and note-taking apps such as Read AI, Fireflies, and Otters already offer similar shared space features. But Pedregal says Granola is more than just a note. “The difference between Granola and other note takers is that it's very personal and you're always in control. You can edit notes at any time. It's not just about capturing meetings, it's a space where you can work, and even posting meetings,” he said.
Earlier this month, Granola updated the app so that users can ask AI bot questions about every meeting they recorded. Based on that, the company now allows users to ask questions about specific folders as well.
Image credits: Granola
Granola's new co-focus is part of a broader trend. Many AI-powered conference transcription and note-taking tools have expanded their focus with other tools and built integration with other tools.
Meanwhile, the productivity suite has introduced transcription tools to prevent customers from using other apps for that purpose. For example, yesterday's concept started the AI conference note taking tool.
Mike Mignano of Lightspeed believes granola has an advantage in this space due to its interface and user experience.
“From the start, the company has been a good mix of AI transcription and human control of taking notes. Now, the product is stronger as it allows you to build context and share notes across meetings. These features allow Granola to have a long-term context for users and teams, kicking the network effects of startups.