How Much Did Chroma Raise? Funding & Key Investors

Chroma has successfully raised $20.3 million over two funding rounds, with significant contributions from investors like Akshay Kothari and Anthony Goldbloom. The platform is an AI-native open-source embedding database designed to simplify the creation of large language model applications.

Keep reading to explore the intricacies of Chroma's fundraising journey and the investors backing this innovative platform.

What Is Chroma?

Chroma, founded on April 1, 2022, in San Francisco, California, operates as an AI-native open-source embedding database. The company aims to simplify the creation of large language model applications by making knowledge, facts, and skills easily integrable into machine learning models.

Founded by Anton Troynikov and Jeff Huber, Chroma focuses on natural language processing to avoid hallucinations in AI models. The platform offers features like embeddings, vector search, document storage, full-text search, metadata filtering, and multi-modal retrieval.

With a small team of 1-10 employees, Chroma is dedicated to advancing AI technology and is currently working on the public release of Chroma Cloud, which is in private preview.

How Much Funding Has Chroma Raised?

1. Pre-Seed Round
   • Amount Raised: $2.3M
   • Date: May 2022
   • Lead Investors: Anthony Goldbloom, James Cham, Nat Friedman, Daniel Gross
   • Valuation at Round: Not publicly disclosed
   • Motivation Behind the Round: To support the initial development and launch of Chroma as an open-source embeddings database.
2. Seed Round
   • Amount Raised: $18M
   • Date: April 2023
   • Lead Investors: Quiet Capital
   • Valuation at Round: $75M
   • Motivation Behind the Round: To scale operations, expand the team, and further develop their AI-native embedding database technology.

Total Amount Raised: $20.3M. Current Valuation: $75M.

Key Investors

• Quiet Capital
  • Details: Quiet Capital is a venture capital firm that led Chroma's $18 million seed round. The firm is known for its focus on early-stage technology investments.
  • Investment Focus Areas: Technology, AI, Software.
  • Notable Investments: Not publicly disclosed.
• Naval Ravikant
  • Details: Naval Ravikant is a well-known entrepreneur and angel investor, co-founder of AngelList. He has a broad investment portfolio in technology and startups.
  • Investment Focus Areas: Technology, AI, Startups.
  • Notable Investments: AngelList, Twitter, Uber.
• Max and Jack Altman
  • Details: Max and Jack Altman are entrepreneurs and investors, known for their connection to OpenAI founder Sam Altman. They have been active in the tech investment space.
  • Investment Focus Areas: AI, Technology, Innovation.
  • Notable Investments: Not publicly disclosed.
• Guillermo Rauch
  • Details: Guillermo Rauch is the CEO of Vercel, a company focused on web development and infrastructure. He is also an active angel investor.
  • Investment Focus Areas: Developer Tools, Web Development, Technology.
  • Notable Investments: Not publicly disclosed.
• Anthony Goldbloom
  • Details: Anthony Goldbloom is the founder of Kaggle and a partner at AIX Ventures. He has a strong background in AI and data science.
  • Investment Focus Areas: AI, Data Science, Machine Learning.
  • Notable Investments: Not publicly disclosed.

What's Next for Chroma?

Chroma stands at the cusp of significant growth opportunities, driven by the rise of generative AI tools and the increasing demand for embedding databases. The company plans to introduce new features like query relevancy and a hosted product offering serverless storage and retrieval functionality. These advancements could position Chroma as a key player in the AI development landscape.

Future fundraising seems likely as Chroma aims to scale its operations and expand its team. However, the company will need to navigate challenges such as competition from established players and ensuring the scalability and reliability of its new distributed system. Balancing innovation with stability will be crucial for Chroma's continued success.

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