Decart raises $32M in second funding round in two months, aims to rival OpenAI and Anthropic
Decart raises $32M in second funding round in two months, aims to rival OpenAI and Anthropic
The Tel Aviv-based AI startup’s valuation in the Series A is estimated at $500 million, a five-fold increase from the Seed round.
AI startup Decart announced on Thursday that it has raised $32 million in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark, taking its total funding over the past two months to $53 million. Calcalist first revealed the Series A last month. Sequoia Capital and Zeev Ventures, who took part in the $21 million Seed round in October, also participated in the Series A.
The company did not reveal its valuation in the Series A, but it is estimated at around $500 million, a five-fold increase from the Seed round.
Decart has built an AI infrastructure platform that enables organizations to train massive AI models at scale—improving efficiency tenfold while reducing training and inference costs. Decart quickly gained viral attention over the past two months with Oasis—its AI video model featuring real-time generative capabilities. After achieving early profitability and generating millions in revenue from enterprise customers before emerging from stealth, Decart is now developing its own foundation models.
The company was established in late 2023 by Dean Leitersdorf (CEO) and Moshe Shalev (CPO). Moshe previously held key technological positions within the IDF's Intelligence Division, including in Unit 8200. Dean, also a veteran of Unit 8200, completed his doctoral studies in computer science at the Technion by the age of 23 while still in military service. Upon their discharge, the two began building an AI lab to address significant challenges in the field of artificial intelligence.
“We’re building an AI empire,” CEO Dean Leitersdorf told Calcalist. “We don’t want Israel to fall behind in this race. We create new experiences with AI that no one else has done before. We build our models from scratch and compete directly with players like OpenAI and Anthropic. One of our key innovations is real-time video AI models. We started with the gaming community because they’re eager to experiment, adapt quickly, and make noise.
“Our AI operates entirely in real time. For example, we released Oasis as a demo for something bigger that’s coming soon. It hit a million users in just three days—faster than ChatGPT, which took five days to reach that milestone.
“But Oasis was only the first step in the development of Decart. What started as a demo evolved into stage one of our vision, and there’s much more on the horizon. We wanted to showcase what our technology can do. Version 1.5 of Oasis will be released soon, allowing users to create entire worlds on their computers and share them with others.”
You raised a lot of money very quickly. Why did you feel the need to raise so fast?
“We debated this decision at length—whether to raise funds or not. Ultimately, many investors approached us, eager to collaborate. Benchmark led our funding round, even before Oasis launched.
“Our mission is to build models that impact every human being. With this vision in mind, we’re now a team of 35 employees, and we’re on track to close 2024 as a profitable company.”
Doesn’t that create massive expectations for you?
“Yes, it does, but we’re determined to do great things. Decart is designed for large-scale success.”
