Collaboration startup Huddl Inc. exited stealth mode today with $8.7 million in funding and an artificial intelligence-infused videoconferencing service that aims to provide an alternative to Zoom.

Huddl, which does business as Huddl.ai in a nod to its AI features, is backed by investors including Bain Capital Ventures and Bloomberg Beta. It’s the latest in a series of collaboration startups to have announced funding amid the increased enterprise spending on productivity tools for remote workers. Earlier, digital whiteboard startup Miro Inc. raised $50 million while meeting notes app maker Hugo Corp. landed a seed round backed by a Google LLC fund.

Huddl.ai attempts to combine the features of a notes app, a videoconferencing tool and a cloud storage platform in a single service. Huddl.ai allows teams not only to host video meetings but also to manage content such as agendas that they use during those meetings.

A built-in AI transcription feature enables meeting participants to automatically turn their speech into text. They can take down notes as well as create action items, which are saved in the form of a to-do list.

Huddl.ai also provides features to help users put the notes and other content they produce during a meeting to use. There’s a capability called Motes that packages action items, agendas, presentation highlights and other items into a report which is sent to every participant at the end of a meeting. The next time those participants schedule a meeting, Huddl.ai reviews the content from previous calls to suggest agendas.

Huddl.ai’s approach of enabling users to manage meetings and meeting-related files in a single service could potentially help it lure teams that currently separate applications for those tasks. In theory, a centralized interface is more convenient than using multiple different tools. In the interest of further centralizing teams’ workflows, Huddl.ai also provides Google and Office calendar integrations so users can schedule meetings without having to open a separate tab.

“Without being able to capture meeting content and optimize it, meetings become a frustrating experience and can be a huge source of lost productivity. That’s why we’ve created Huddl.ai,” said Huddl.ai Chief Executive Krishna Yarlagadda.

The concept of centralizing tasks that normally require multiple applications has also been implemented elsewhere in the collaboration market. Chatflow Ltd., a startup doing business as Spike, last month raised funding for an email service that combines messages, note-taking features, task management and related capabilities in a single inbox. 

Image: Huddl.ai