Raleigh’s Pryon, a startup from serial AI entrepreneur Igor Jablokov, has closed on a $100 million investment, the company disclosed Tuesday.
Jablokov, the company's CEO, said he has high expectations for Pryon, adding that a public offering could make sense down the line.
The round, which values the company between $500 million and $750 million, was led by the US Innovative Technology Fund with participation from Aperture Venture Capital, BootstrapLabs, Breyer Capital, Duke Capital Partners, Good Growth Capital, Omnimed Capital, Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund, and others.
Jablokov has described Pryon as a technology company that’s making AI adoption easier for companies in multiple industries.
“We were always an AI native company,” Jablokov said. “It was really after ChatGPT that people finally connected the dots and said, ‘Holy smokes, you’ve been building that all along for the enterprise.'”
Pryon's technology is already in use at a number of firms, from nuclear power plants to semiconductor companies. Jablokov said deals are even pending with hospital systems. The technology is versatile enough for multiple industries, taking existing static content and using it in a variety of ways. Pryon’s algorithms work with the data and allow users to converse with it – with applications in everything from customer support to corporate help desks. It can create everything from cafeteria menus to schematics, Jablokov said.
The company has landed large investments in the past – it closed on $12 million two years ago. However, the $100 million haul raises the already high expectations for the venture.
A Pryon exit would be a big deal for the Triangle, as several local firms have invested in the company over the years, such as Triangle Tweener Fund, Carolina Angel Network, Triangle Angel Partners, Rex Health Ventures and DUMAC, which manages Duke University’s endowment.
Jablokov said the round means “we’ll have some staying power,” but an exit isn’t an imminent priority. The company, which is at more than 100 employees, will “continue doubling down on R&D and we’ll continue growing.”
But an IPO could be in its future.
Big expectations
Jablokov said Pryon will be operating as if it were a publicly traded company “ahead of any sort of exit transition.”
His previous company, Yap, sold to Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) in 2011. Its voice-recognition technology helped pave the way for Amazon's AI platform, Alexa.
Robbie Allen, a serial entrepreneur, was among Jablokov’s first investors, and expects a similar headline for Pryon some day.
“Igor [Jablokov] has always been pretty clear … that he was swinging for the fences on this,” said Allen, who invested in Pryon both individually and through the Triangle Tweener Fund. “This wasn’t something where he was looking to do some small exit. He was going all in. He’s held true to that and this round certainly shows that.”
Allen understands AI. His first startup, Automated Insights, deployed AI technologies to “write” narratives for partners such as Yahoo and the Associated Press – long before OpenAI launched its viral ChatGPT tool. That company sold to Vista Equity Partners-owned STATS in 2015.
Allen sees potentially bigger things for Jablokov.
Jablokov said there hasn’t been any exit pressure – and that part of the reason is his investors recognize the growing valuation opportunity.
Jablokov said the latest funding validates what he has “always envisioned.”
“Most people didn’t see it, which is okay,” he said. “I did Alexa before most people knew anything about it. … Now all of a sudden, people are waking up because they’re reading news articles about [AI] … but guess what, it’s not all of a sudden. We’ve been working on this for many moons. … While everybody else has been throwing paper airplanes, we’ve been building the Airbus version of this.”
Jablokov said he is still a “significant” shareholder in the company, even after the fundraise.
“I haven’t sold a single share of stock, I’m in it for the long haul,” he said.
'Not fair-weather friends'
The fact that the latest round is led by US Innovative Technology (USIT) – a firm that’s created buzz in its own right, is validating, as its founder is working to take advantage of AI.
Jablokov said USIT had been talking to Pryon “before ChatGPT was ever even released.”
“They’re not fair-weather friends, they had a conviction and a thesis around the importance of AI to enterprise applications before things really started heating up,” he said.
USIT’s LinkedIn page describes it as an investment firm backing technology companies working in both the commercial sector and the defense industry – including in spaces such as artificial intelligence and logistics.
USIT was founded by billionaire Thomas Tull, a Pittsburgh-based entrepreneur who sold his film company, Legendary Entertainment (behind films such as "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight"), to Chinese firm Dalian Wanda Group for $3.5 billion in 2016.
In recent years, he’s been focused on investing in AI startups that could give the U.S. a competitive edge, he told Bloomberg in March. And he’s secured big backing.
As of January, USIT had raised more than $1.4 billion of a planned $5 billion fund, according to securities filings.
