Baseten, the company providing inference services for rapidly expanding AI applications, announced a $150 million Series D funding round. This brings the company’s total funding to over $285 million and triples its valuation to $2.15 billion, just six months after a $75 million Series C round. The round was spearheaded by BOND, with participation from new investors CapitalG, Premji Invest, and Kevin and Elizabeth Weil of Scribble. Several existing investors also contributed.
This significant investment comes amid a surge in AI adoption across various sectors. The demand for efficient inference, the process of running AI models, is driving the growth of the over $100 billion inference market. Baseten‘s platform is designed to meet this demand, providing the performance, scalability, and cost-effectiveness needed by modern AI applications. The company serves numerous clients, including Abridge, Captions, Clay, OpenEvidence, and Writer, who leverage Baseten‘s platform to power products generating billions of dollars in revenue.
Tuhin Srivastava, Baseten‘s co-founder and CEO, compared the importance of inference to that of cloud computing in the previous generation of technology companies, highlighting its role as a fundamental component for future AI applications. He believes Baseten will become a key indicator of the AI economy’s growth, much like Stripe‘s role in the internet economy.
Several Baseten clients emphasized the platform’s impact on their operations. Kareem Amin, co-founder and CEO of Clay, noted that Baseten enables faster launches, higher-quality AI capabilities, and improved reliability. Dr. Shiv Rao, CEO and co-founder of Abridge, highlighted Baseten‘s role in supporting their mission of improving healthcare through real-time medical documentation. Zachary Ziegler, co-founder and CTO of OpenEvidence, highlighted the platform’s reliability in handling high-stakes medical information.
The new funding will allow Baseten to expand its team and enhance its product offerings. The company plans to invest in research, infrastructure improvements, and developer tools, further supporting the needs of rapidly growing AI companies.
Investors shared their positive outlook on Baseten‘s future. Jay Simons of BOND noted the company’s impressive product development and market adoption. Jill Chase of CapitalG highlighted Baseten‘s role in accelerating AI innovation and helping companies create impactful products. Baseten recently launched new products, including Baseten Model APIs and Baseten Training, further enhancing its platform’s capabilities. These additions, combined with the existing Baseten Inference Stack, provide a comprehensive solution for deploying and scaling AI models effectively.
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