Neeva, the so-called Google challenger search engine, announced its plans to wind down its consumer-facing business earlier this week. The announcement laid out plans to stop providing the search engine to the public and refocus their efforts on AI and enterprise.
Neeva was founded by two former Googlers, Sridhar Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan, back in 2019. The search engine provided an ad-free subscription service, though recently added a free tier of service. In the two years since its launch, the search engine was able to attract 600,000 users worldwide, most of them through the free version.
Neeva had been on an expansion trajectory, launching in Europe in October 2020, and attempting to redefine the search experience with the help of a generative AI model. The search engine designed a soon-to-be-released app, called Gist, which also made use of an AI-based search system.
The problem for Neeva became clear when they were unable to achieve the expected growth rates, which in turn made it difficult to manage their financial obligations. The investment from big-name partners such as Sequoia and Greylock, was not enough, it seemed, in a difficult economic climate.
In the end, Neeva was fighting a losing battle with two giants – Google and Microsoft. Microsoft had brought open AI’s ChatGDP to its Bing search engine, and Google was advancing its Bard system. Competitors such as You.com and Brave were no ideal match for Neeva either, providing further evidence of how difficult the situation had become.
Ultimately, Neeva faced a problem of getting people to switch to their search engine when compared to the giant incumbents. It appeared more difficult to convince users of the necessity to switch to a new search engine, even when they were offered a better experience.
Going forward, Neeva shifted their focus to licensing deals with enterprises for application search, rather than consumer-based search. Furthermore, the company is in talks with cloud giant Snowflake about a potential acquisition.
Neeva will issue full refunds to current paid subscribers, as well as delete any user data. As for the founders, they remain optimistic of the future of their company and continue to explore ways to use their LLM expertise and search knowledge in the most effective, affordable, safe, and responsible way.
Founded only two years ago as an alternative to the big-name search engines, Neeva has effectively shut down their consumer-facing services, citing difficult economic conditions and the challenge of attracting new users as the main reasons for their unfortunate demise. Their ambitious vision of creating a genuinely different search experience has not ultimately panned out, but the company hopes to have a place in the future plans of the enterprise sector.
