Keenable, a startup founded by Andrey Styskin and Matthias Petri, has emerged from stealth with $26 million in seed funding. The round was led by Accel, with participation from Conviction Partners and several business angels. The company is focused on creating a web search index tailored for AI agents, which can process large volumes of data more efficiently than traditional search engines.
Keenable claims its API is already in use by several AI labs and inference providers during both training and runtime. The startup has not disclosed its customers but has partnered with Gradium, a voice AI company, to support live information retrieval. Styskin explained that the cost of serving and scanning the entire internet is enormous without fine-tuned index structures, making innovation in search space narrowing crucial.
Styskin, who previously led Yandex’s search, AI, and cloud division, highlighted the growing role of AI crawlers in search volume. He noted that while it is difficult to convince users to move away from Google, the innovators’ dilemma suggests that smaller companies like Keenable could offer more cost-efficient solutions for AI companies. The startup plans to double its engineering team by year-end to build its go-to-market strategy.
Source: techcrunch
