Quora raises $75 million to grow Poe, its AI chat platform

Quora has raised $75 million from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z),to fuel the expansion of Poe, its AI chat platform. 

Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo outlined the company’s vision, expressing that a significant portion of the funding would be channeled into compensating creators participating in the platform through their newly-introduced creator monetization program. Launched in October for Poe, the program enables individuals creating bots or prompts to generate income. Even developers integrating bots with Poe AI are eligible for financial rewards.

The strategic emphasis on creators positions Quora as a magnet for talent, drawing skilled developers to Poe with the promise of monetary incentives. Moreover, Poe amalgamates a diverse array of text and image AI models, including notable ones like ChatGPT, DALL-E 3, Claude 2, Stable Diffusion, Llama, and more. This extensive toolkit empowers creators with a vast playground of resources to unleash their creativity.

Despite facing a decline in valuation from its 2017 peak of $1.8 billion to the current $500 million, D’Angelo emphasizes that this adjustment reflects the evolving market conditions influenced by rising interest rates and an increased cost of capital. He expresses contentment with Quora being accurately valued in the present market landscape.

While Quora’s latest fundraising effort is focused on Poe, the platform has been gaining momentum since Poe’s launch roughly a year ago. D’Angelo revealed that Quora experienced its highest usage week ever recently, boasting over 400 million monthly unique visitors. Notably, excluding Poe, Quora maintains positive cash flow, indicating the potential for substantial growth and impact with the infusion of new funding into Poe.

a16z partner David George concurs with optimism, highlighting the signs of increasing returns to scale already evident in Poe. Currently ranking among the top 5 largest generative AI-related properties, Poe has witnessed the creation of over 1 million bots by creators on the platform, George said. The investment from a16z positions Quora to further strengthen its position in the generative AI landscape and enhance its capabilities in supporting creators.