In early 2023, David Petrou, a well-known engineer and founding member of both Google Goggles and Google Glass, made an incredible move. After more than 17 years at the company, he set out to launch his own startup.
“We were seeing how fast technology is changing, but we felt there were certain ideas that are most often investigated in the startup context,” Petrou told TechCrunch.
His ultimate idea was to build Continua, a consumer-oriented company that uses AI agents to enhance collaboration and interaction with SMS, iMessage and Discord group chats.
“A simple way to think about it is that we bring the power of LLM to group chat,” Petrou said.
Continua announced on Tuesday it raised a $8 million seed round. Funding was led by GV and additional participation was from the Bessemer Ventures Partners and Angel Investors groups.
When developing Continua, Petrou noticed that people interact with ChatGpt or another LLM and copy and paste what they've learned into a group conversation.
“If you and I are planning a trip, or are trying to understand what you have for dinner and what movies to watch, all of these things can be facilitated by LLMs joining in group chats with us,” Petrou said.
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Continua claims that AI agents can reduce confusion in group chats by participating in conversations and providing useful information only when needed.
When a group discusses projects and general plans, Continua can automatically set reminders, start voting, add calendar invitations, and generate Google Docs using checklists and to-do lists.
If a user forgets details about the group chat, such as meeting times and location, you can instruct the message Continua to request information personally.
At first glance, Continua may seem like a simple application for AI, but Petrou says that getting LLM to engage in conversations with multiple people is a rather complicated technical problem. Most AI models are designed for conversations between one person and one assistant, so Continua had to fine-tune their techniques to understand the dynamics of group chat discussions.
For example, group members do not need Continua to respond to everything they write.
“We want our agents to have social intelligence,” Petrou said. He added that it would need to “break the brain of LLM” in order to naturally integrate AI into conversation.
Users can call Continua when they need that help, or tell the agent to “hang back” if they're chimed too often.
Users can start Continua by adding a phone number to the Discord chat in the group SMS or username.
While several companies, including Meta and startup Hey Umai, offer AI agents for conversations, Petrou claims that Continua is best suited to group interactions.
GV general partner Erik Nordlander said his company invested in Petrou even before Continua's concept of group chat AI came into full shape. “David is a really great engineer and anyone who used AI even before it turned out to be hot.”
According to Nordlander, Continua has several potential paths to profitability. The agent has already helped plan events and book trips, but he suggested that he could claim in the future.