Read AI Inc., a generative artificial intelligence company that’s focused on summarizing the content of meetings, emails and messaging channels, said today it has closed on a $21 million early-stage round of funding.

Today’s Series A round was led by new investor Goodwater Capital and saw participation from existing investor Madrona Venture Group. Both investors will henceforth be represented on Read AI’s board of directors.

The startup says it’s hoping to transform the future of work by improving people’s digital interactions with AI in order to make them more efficient. It has built a generative AI model that essentially listens in to video meetings on platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams, taking in everything that’s said so it can quickly summarize the conversation once the meeting concludes. It’s all about saving time, eliminating the hassle of taking notes in meetings and ensuring nothing important is missed.

In addition, Read AI’s platform also provides coaching tools to help users become better speakers. It analyzes their presentations in meetings in order to provide users with tips on how to improve their speaking abilities, so they can be more clear and concise in future meetings.

Alongside today’s funding round, the startup revealed that it’s now expanding its summarization capabilities to cover emails and messaging channels such as Gmail, Outlook, Teams and Slack. The new Readouts feature connects to user’s various channels and enables various emails and messages to “interact” with each other. In this way, it can unify communications, empowering users with personalized, actionable briefings tailored to their main priorities.

The startup said Readouts will learn which topics are most relevant to each user within 24 hours of them first connecting it to their email and messaging channels. The average generative AI summary from Read AI is said to condense around 50 emails across 10 recipients, and 56 message threads involving seven participants into a single thread that highlights all of the major points.

For each topic of importance, it will provide daily updates with generative AI summaries of everything that was said and communicated in that 24-hour period. It will highlight the key takeaways, assigning relevant action items and any answers to key questions. In addition, it will link to the source of every highlight and finding it unearths.

Read AI co-founder and Chief Executive David Shim said the startup’s platform aims to create more value for workers, saving them valuable time that used to be spent going through emails, messaging threads and meeting notes.

“It brings together your meetings, emails and messages and transforms them into collaborative partners, so they talk to each other, share information, offer updates, find answers and organize tasks through connected intelligence,” he said. “By turning dialogue into action, Read AI ensures every conversation moves you to value and impact.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that the startup is applying AI to an age-old problem that has never been solved. “Email volumes are up, and millions of workers across the world see their inboxes deluged with new messages every single day,” the analyst said. “Yet email providers don’t seem to offer any viable solutions beyond a few filters. So it’s good to see this kind of innovation coming from the startup cadre. Read AI may be onto something, but it has to show how it can change the future of work and make people more efficient, one email at a time.”

According to the company, its platform has seen its monthly active user base grow by more than 12 times in the last year, with a 15-times increase in recorded meetings across users in more than 40 countries.

Goodwater Capital partner Coddy Johnson said Read AI benefits knowledge workers by reducing the time they spend on menial tasks, so they can devote their energies to more productive tasks. “Everyone from college students to project managers to oil field supervisors and startup entrepreneurs agree and are adopting Read AI at an historic pace,” he said. “Based on third-party data analysis, Read AI is not only the fastest-growing meeting note-taker, it is also one of the fastest-growing consumer utility apps of all time.”

Images: Read AI