Viven Raises $35M to Build AI Digital Twins of Coworkers

Addressing Workplace Communication Bottlenecks with Digital Twins

A significant portion of the workday is dedicated to communication and project coordination among employees. However, this collaborative effort is frequently hampered by the accessibility of key personnel.

When a team member possessing essential information is unavailable – due to vacation or differing time zones, for example – team progress often stalls until a response is received.

Introducing Viven: A Digital Twin Startup

Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, the founders of Eightfold – an AI recruiting company valued at $2.1 billion – posit that advancements in Large Language Models (LLMs) and data privacy technologies offer solutions to this prevalent and costly issue.

Earlier this year, they launched Viven, a startup focused on creating digital twins with the goal of providing employees access to critical information from colleagues, even during periods of unavailability.

Seed Funding and Emergence

On Wednesday, Viven officially launched, announcing $35 million in seed funding secured from investors including Khosla Ventures, Foundation Capital, and FPV Ventures.

How Viven's Digital Twins Function

Viven develops a dedicated LLM for each employee.

This effectively constructs a digital twin by accessing internal electronic documents like email, Slack messages, and Google Docs.

Other employees within the organization can then query this digital twin to obtain immediate answers concerning shared projects and collective knowledge.

“The system allows users to interact with a colleague’s twin as if communicating directly with that person, receiving a prompt response,” explained Ashutosh Garg to TechCrunch.

Addressing Privacy Concerns

A primary challenge lies in the fact that not all information can be universally shared.

Employees routinely manage sensitive data or maintain personal files they wish to keep confidential from their peers.

Viven’s technology tackles this complexity through a system called pairwise context and privacy.

This allows the startup’s LLMs to accurately determine what information is permissible to share, and with whom, throughout the organization.

Safeguarding Personal Information

The Viven LLMs are designed to recognize personal context and understand which information must remain private – such as inquiries relating to an employee’s personal life.

Importantly, a query history for each digital twin is visible to the employee, serving as a deterrent against inappropriate questioning.

Ashu Garg, a general partner at Foundation Capital, noted to TechCrunch that “solving this problem was, until recently, unattainable.”

Current Adoption and Competitive Landscape

Viven is currently being utilized by several enterprise clients, including Genpact and Eightfold.

(The co-founders, Ashutosh Garg and Varun Kacholia, continue to lead Eightfold while also managing Viven.)

Ashutosh Garg asserts that no other company is currently addressing digital twins specifically for the enterprise market.

He initially sought confirmation from Vinod Khosla, who assured him that no such competitor existed and subsequently invested in Viven.

Investor Enthusiasm

Ashu Garg of Foundation Capital expressed similar excitement regarding Viven.

“The key realization was that there’s a widespread issue of coordination and communication across all roles that remains unaddressed by automation,” Ashu Garg shared with TechCrunch.

Future Competition and Viven’s Advantage

While no direct competitors exist presently, it’s likely that other companies will develop digital twins for enterprises in the future.

Ashu Garg acknowledges that products like Anthropic, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, and OpenAI’s enterprise search tools incorporate personalization features.

However, Viven aims to establish a competitive advantage through its “pairwise” context technology, acting as a protective barrier against future market entrants.