Tana Raises $25M for AI-Powered Knowledge Graph - 160k+ Waitlist

The Quest for the Ultimate Productivity App

Developing an application capable of streamlining to-do lists for individuals and teams – ideally by not only organizing tasks but also actively assisting in their completion – has proven to be a persistent challenge within the business technology sector. A startup named Tana, leveraging advancements in artificial intelligence and drawing upon the experiences of its founders, including previous work on Google Wave, believes it has discovered a viable solution.

Securing Funding and Emerging from Stealth

Tana is now publicly launching and has announced $25 million in initial funding from a diverse group of investors. This capital will be instrumental in furthering the development and deployment of its innovative platform.

How Tana Functions: A Multifaceted Approach

Tana functions as a hybrid tool, combining automated list creation, note-taking capabilities, and application enablement features. It can process spoken conversations, such as those conducted via Zoom, or voice memos, transcribing them and converting them into actionable tasks.

Subsequently, Tana can execute these tasks, integrating with various platforms to generate lists, spreadsheets, and web page updates, depending on user configurations.

Introducing "Supertag": Structuring Unstructured Data

A key feature of Tana is its “Supertag” functionality. This is designed to transform unstructured information into a structured format rapidly, drawing inspiration from principles of object-oriented programming.

Continuous Improvement Through Data and Iteration

The developers of Tana anticipate that the platform will become increasingly effective as it processes more data and undergoes further development iterations.

Building a Knowledge Graph

“We are building out a knowledge graph,” explained CEO Tarjei Vassbotn. The company’s name, Tana, is derived from a major river in Norway, symbolizing a continuous flow of information.

Targeting Individuals and Teams

Tana is designed to serve both individual users and collaborative teams, facilitating the creation and management of data and the resulting action items.

Vassbotn stated, “Everything that you do, whether it’s talking to your phone or having a meeting or writing your own notes, it is all automatically organized and connected together so that our AI can work.”

Early Traction and Waitlist Growth

The startup has already demonstrated considerable momentum. Following a successful closed beta and positive word-of-mouth referrals, Tana has accumulated a waitlist of 160,000 users, with significant interest from large enterprises. The waitlist is now beginning to open.

Over a nine-month period, 30,000 individuals participated in the closed beta program, and a dedicated Tana Slack community has grown to include 24,000 members.

Experienced Founders and a Strategic Location

Tana is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, with a development and operations office located in Norway. The company is led by three Norwegian co-founders, including Tarjei Vassbotn and Grim Iversen, both former Google employees.

Notably, Iversen played a key role in the development of Google Wave, a previous attempt to address the challenges of to-do list management and collaboration. Olav Kriken serves as the company’s COO, bringing experience from a series of successful digital ventures in Norway.

Investment Details and Notable Backers

The founders have secured $25 million in funding across two rounds. Tola Capital, a venture capital firm specializing in AI-powered enterprise software, led the most recent $14 million Series A funding round, valuing the company at $100 million post-money.

Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Alliance VC, and firstminute capital also participated in this round.

The initial $11 million seed round attracted investment from La Famiglia (now part of General Catalyst), Google Maps co-founder Lars Rasmussen, Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi, Runway founder Siqi Chen, and Datadog founder Olivier Pomel, among others.

Angel Investors with a Focus on Productivity

The angel investors are recognized for their own contributions to the development of productivity tools.

Lars Rasmussen’s Continued Pursuit of Productivity Solutions

Lars Rasmussen, the founder and former head of Google Maps, has continued to explore solutions for enhancing productivity, first at Facebook with Workplace and now through angel investing.

Rasmussen expressed strong confidence in Iversen, stating that he would support his ventures “pretty much no matter what.” He also revealed that Iversen had previously presented some of the core concepts behind Tana during his time at Google Wave.

Addressing a Long-Standing Challenge

Numerous developers have attempted to create a definitive productivity solution for business software, but none have achieved widespread success. Even Slack, initially positioned as an alternative to email, has contributed to information overload.

Leveraging AI to Complete the Cycle

Tana’s founders believe that the integration of AI will finally enable them to overcome these challenges and deliver a truly effective productivity platform.

A Gradual Development Process

The company was founded in 2020 and spent considerable time refining its approach before launching the closed beta.

Vassbotn explained, “We started out building our own models for everything. But when GPT-3 came out, we realized that this is going to be a race among many players.”

Pivoting to Support Multiple AI Models

The company shifted its focus to ensure compatibility with a wide range of AI models. “That sounds easy, but it’s pretty hard when you’re dealing with a knowledge graph, where things need to be precise.”

Current AI Partnerships

Currently, Tana primarily utilizes OpenAI for its natural language processing capabilities, but also integrates with Anthropic, Grok, and open-source models.

AI for Information Management and Task Routing

AI is employed not only to process information but also to determine its appropriate destination and subsequent actions.

Vassbotn described Tana as a “tool catalog,” noting its integration with approximately 50 different tools, all of which are also incorporating AI functionality. He highlighted the need for these tools to collaborate effectively to avoid fragmentation and inconsistencies.

Potential Competition and Future Development

Tana anticipates competition from established players in the note-taking and productivity spaces, such as Notion, who may also be exploring AI-powered assistant features.

Kriken acknowledged that Tana is currently “probably best for tech savvy professionals” who are comfortable with some customization. However, the company envisions a future where Tana is accessible to all knowledge workers.

Investor Confidence and a Long-Term Vision

Investors are optimistic about Tana’s potential. Sheila Gulati, founder and managing director of Tola Capital, praised the team’s commitment and unique vision for productivity, describing her experience using the platform to manage her VC firm as “miraculous.”