Atlassian Corp. is buying The Browser Company Inc., a startup that develops browsers with embedded artificial intelligence features.

The companies announced the deal today. It values The Browser Company at $610 million, or about $60 million than the valuation it reportedly received last year following a $50 million funding round. Atlassian expects to close the transaction by December.

The Browser Company launched in 2019 and debuted its first browser, Arc, three years later. It includes a built-in ad blocker and a multitasking feature that can display two tabs side-by-side in the same window. A personalization tool allows users to change the design of webpages without writing code. 

Arc also ships with a collection of AI features called Arc Max. When a user hovers over a tab in the browser’s toolbar, the AI displays a preview complete with a description of the tab’s contents. Another Arc Max feature allows users to launch ChatGPT from the search bar.

The Browser Company introduced its second browser, Dia, in June. It includes a broader set of AI features headlined by an embedded chatbot. Users can ask the chatbot to generate documents, translate webpages and perform other text processing tasks.

Some of Dia’s AI features are geared towards online shopping. The browser can summarize the customer reviews below a product listing and check whether the item is available elsewhere for a lower price.

In May, The Browser Company paused development of Arc to refocus its efforts on Dia. Atlassian plans to carry over some of Arc’s features to Dia after it completes the acquisition. It will also add new cybersecurity and regulatory compliance features to make the latter browser more suitable for business users.

“Knowledge workers need a browser designed for their specific needs, not one that’s been built for everyone on the planet,” Atlassian Chief Executive Officer Mike Cannon-Brookes wrote in a blog post today. “That’s what we will build with The Browser Company.”

The acquisition could create more competition for Perplexity AI Inc,. which launched an AI-powered browser called Comet in May. It can summarize documents and perform online research similarly to Dia. Comet is also capable of interacting with webpages on the user’s behalf, which allows it to speed up tasks such as making online purchases.

Atlassian may also seek to compete with enterprise browser makers such as Island Technology Inc., which raised $250 million in May. The latter company’s browser includes security features that block malicious webpages. There’s also a password manager that stores the login credentials with which workers sign into business applications. It’s possible Atlassian will seek to integrate similar features into Dia as part of its effort to make the browser more useful for enterprises. 

Image: The Browser Company