Vellum.ai, an engineering startup focused on generative AI services, has successfully raised $5 million in a recent seed funding round. While the company has not disclosed its lead investor, it has revealed that Rebel Fund, Eastlink Capital, Pioneer Fund, Y Combinator, and several angels participated in the round.
Vellum.ai garnered attention during Y Combinator’s demo day in Winter 2023 for its unique approach to improving generative AI prompting for businesses. The startup currently boasts 40 paying customers, and its revenue has been steadily increasing by around 25% to 30% per month.
Prompt engineering is the core focus of Vellum.ai, and its founders, who previously worked with GPT-3 at another Y Combinator company called Dover, recognized the need for better prompt tooling. They discovered that the manual labor involved in fine-tuning and measuring prompt quality was hindering their productivity. This realization prompted them to create Vellum.ai and offer a suite of tools for enhancing generative AI prompting.
With modern large language models (LLMs) becoming more prominent, the market demand for prompt engineering has grown exponentially. Vellum.ai enables users to compare model outputs, search for company-specific data to enhance prompts, and utilize tools like testing and version control to ensure prompt accuracy. While it may seem simple to prompt an LLM, companies often encounter challenges with edge cases and inconsistent results, highlighting the need for specialized prompt engineering.
To illustrate the significance of prompt engineering, Vellum.ai used the example of a support ticketing software company that caters to hotels. The company aimed to build an LLM agent capable of answering questions like making reservations. By implementing a prompt that functions as an escalation classifier, the software can determine if a query should be addressed by a person or the LLM. The LLM can then provide accurate answers without generating irrelevant responses. This process involves chaining LLMs to create a logical flow, similar to natural language programming.
Vellum.ai has not disclosed specific pricing details but has confirmed that their services cost in the three to four figures per month. The company’s growing customer base and increasing demand for LLMs indicate strong enterprise interest in prompt engineering tools.
Overall, the generative AI market is expected to experience significant growth, and companies like Vellum.ai play a crucial role by providing the necessary prompt engineering tools. With a promising seed funding round and a flourishing customer base, Vellum.ai is positioned to capitalize on the expanding market for LLMs.
