About Character.ai
Character.ai is a Technology company based in Menlo Park (United States) founded in 2021 by Noam Shazeer. AI-based conversational solutions are provided for user interactions and learning. Character.ai has raised $193 million across 3 funding rounds from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Nat Friedman. The company has 325 employees. Character.ai was last valued at $1 billion in January 2026. Its chief executive, as recorded, is Karandeep Anand. Its website character.ai draws about 194.5 million monthly visits. The company was acqui-hired. Its focus areas include High Tech, Chatbots, Personal Assistants and General Assistants. Its competitors include Replika and Mindtrip; 2 of its 2 listed competitors have raised funding.
Company details
Character.ai was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, United States. Operations focus on the AI sector, where neural language models and dialog agents are developed using proprietary technology. Tools are offered for imagination, brainstorming, language learning, and related applications. Users are enabled to engage with conversational AI for diverse purposes.
- Headquarters Menlo Park, United States
- Employees 325
- Founders Noam Shazeer
- Stage Unicorn
- SectorsTechnology
- Website category AI Chatbots and Tools
- Email••••••••
- Website character.ai
- Social LinkedIn X
- Total Equity Funding$193M (USD)
in 3 rounds
- Latest Funding Round$150M (USD), Series A
Mar 2023
- InvestorsLightspeed Venture Partners
& 5 more
- Employee Count325
Apps and channels of Character.ai
Character.ai publishes 1 mobile app with over 10M+ downloads.
Funding Insights of Character.ai
Character.ai has successfully raised a total of $193M across 3 strategic funding rounds. The most recent funding activity was a Series A round of $150 million completed in March 2023. This substantial capital infusion reflects strong investor confidence in the company's business model, growth potential, and market opportunities. The funding enables strategic expansion, product development, market penetration, and operational scaling to drive long-term value creation and competitive advantage.
- Total Funding $193M
- Total Rounds 3
- Last Round Series A — $150M
- First Round $43M
(Dec 2021)
- Investors Count 6
All 3 funding rounds of Character.ai with amounts and investors; the two latest post-money valuations are shown, the rest are part of the premium plan.
| Date | Amount | Transaction Name | Valuation | Lead Investors | Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | $150M | Series A | $1B | a16z | |
| Jan 2023 | Series B | – | – | ||
| Dec 2021 | $43M | Seed | – | – | – |
| Date | Valuation | Stage |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 2023 | $1B | •••••••• |
Last known valuation $1B (Jan 2026). 6 investors in total: 4 institutional and 2 angel.
Investors in Character.ai
Character.ai has secured backing from 6 investors, including venture fund and angel investors. Prominent investors backing the company include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Nat Friedman.
| Investor | Description | Founded Year | Domain | Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Venture capital investments in technology sectors are handled by Andreessen Horowitz. | a16z.com | |||
Early-stage investments are provided to transformative technology companies. | svangel.com | San Francisco, United States | ||
Early-stage companies are invested in by A.Capital Ventures. | acapital.com | Menlo Park, United States | ||
Venture capital investing in innovative companies across global sectors is undertaken by Lightspeed Venture Partners. | 1997 | lsvp.com | Menlo Park, United States | |
NF Nat Friedman | Former GitHub CEO, AI investor, active angel in tech startups | unknown_017cc39ffaf84be2b | San Francisco, United States | |
EG Elad Gil | Tech entrepreneur, angel investor, ex-Twitter VP, author of High Growth Handbook | unknown_7b7fe1ae6b774056a | San Francisco, United States |
Investor details for Character.ai
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People of Character.ai
14 people are tracked at Character.ai (5 in leadership, 9 in team); the tracked headcount is 325.
| Name | Role | Group |
|---|---|---|
Karandeep Anand | CEO | Leadership |
Noam Shazeer | Founder | Leadership |
Jerry Ruoti | Head of Trust and Safety | Leadership |
Annie Wickman | Head of People | Leadership |
Andy N. | Head Of Data Science | Leadership |
Zhengming Wang | Member Of Technical Staff | Team |
Nicole Bugay | Recruiter | Team |
Srijan L. | Staff Data Scientist | Team |
Bryce S | People, Places And Talent | Team |
Sarah Duquette | Recruiting Operations And Sr. Recruiting Coordinator | Team |
Tim Godfrey | Technical Recruiter | Team |
Aleena Janjua | Trust & Safety Specialist | Team |
Liuyin Cheng | Data Engineer | Team |
Grace Lam | Member Of Technical Staff | Team |
Complete people profiles for Character.ai
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Timeline of Character.ai
4 dated milestones of Character.ai across 2 years, from founding to its latest funding, stage changes and deals.
- Founded Character.ai is founded.
- Funding First funding round of $43.0M.
- Funding Latest funding round, Series A, of $150.0M.
- Milestone Reaches Unicorn status.
Competitors of Character.ai
Character.ai has 2 listed competitors in our database, 2 of them funded. They include Replika and Mindtrip.
| Company Name | Domain | Founded | HQ Location | Total funding | Employees | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| replika.com | 2015 | San Francisco, United States | $11.04M | 1 | An AI companion is developed for emotional support and conversation. | |
| mindtrip.ai | 2023 | Palo Alto, United States | $19M | Trips are discovered, planned, and booked through an AI-powered platform. |
Detailed competitors of Character.ai
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- Full competitor set
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Web traffic of Character.ai
The website of Character.ai (character.ai) receives about 194.5M visits a month and ranks #201 among all websites worldwide, #5 in AI Chatbots and Tools.
- Monthly visits194.5M
▲ 1.7% vs previous month
- Unique visitors6.2M
per month
- Global rank#201
among all websites
- Category rank#5
AI Chatbots and Tools
- Bounce rate29%
- Pages per visit9.1
- Average visit18 min 05 sec
- DevicesDesktop 18% · Mobile 82%
Websites whose visitors overlap most with Character.ai. Affinity shows how closely the audiences match.
| Website | Domain | Audience affinity | Monthly visits | Global rank | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
polybuzz.ai | polybuzz.ai | 100% | #835 | – | |
| openai.com | 88% | 210.1M | #205 | View details | |
| perplexity.ai | 87% | 170.1M | #242 | View details | |
chatgpt.com | chatgpt.com | 85% | #6 | – | |
claude.ai | claude.ai | 85% | #215 | – | |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
| •••••••••• | ••••••.com | ••% | •.•M | #••••• | – |
All 39 similar websites and full traffic analytics for Character.ai
The complete similar-websites list, audience overlap and engagement analytics require an active premium plan.
- 39 similar websites
- Audience overlap
- Engagement analytics
- Traffic by brand
Verified entity values are shown only after access is granted.
Top companies in Chatbots
3 companies that operate in the same segment as Character.ai (Chatbots) in United States, ranked by their profile score on The Company Check.
| Company | Description | Founded | Location | Total funding | Revenue | Employees |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Cloud-based omnichannel communication and customer engagement platform is utilized. | 2008 | San Francisco, California, United States | USD 239.77 M | USD 5.07 B | 5,540 | |
Cloud-based business process management suite solutions are delivered. | 2010 | San Mateo, California, United States | USD 400.05 M | USD 838.81 M | 4,500 | |
Cloud-based unified communication solutions including voice and video are provided. | 2011 | San Ramon, California, United States | USD 475.91 M | USD 4.12 M | 1,511 |
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Related news about Character.Ai
Complete news archive for Character.ai
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Frequently Asked Questions about Character.ai
Character.ai was founded in 2021.
Character.ai is headquartered in Menlo Park, United States. It is registered at Menlo Park, California, United States.
Karandeep Anand is the CEO of Character.ai, as recorded in our data.
Character.ai is a funded company, having raised a total of $193M across 3 funding rounds to date. The company's 1st funding round was a Seed of $43M, raised on Dec 2021.
Character.ai has 325 employees.
Character.ai was founded in 2021 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, United States. Operations focus on the AI sector, where neural language models and dialog agents are developed using proprietary technology. Tools are offered for imagination, brainstorming, language learning, and related applications. Users are enabled to engage with conversational AI for diverse purposes.
Character.ai has 6 investors. Key investors include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Nat Friedman, Elad Gil, and SV Angel.
The valuation of Character.ai is $1B as of Jan 2026.
Yes. Character.ai publishes Character AI: Chat, Talk, Text, with over 10 million downloads.
The website of Character.ai receives about 194.5 million visits a month and ranks #201 among all websites worldwide.