Yupp.ai shuts down after raising $33M from Chris Dixon of a16z crypto

Sometimes a great idea, a big raise from a big name VC, and a sea of ​​well-connected angel investors isn’t enough.

Less than a year after its launch, Yupp.ai is shutting down its business, co-founders Pankaj Gupta and Gilad Mishne. he announced the second.

Yupp provided a crowdsourced AI color selection service. It allowed consumers to test and compare results from the offering of 800 AI models for free, including technologies from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic. Yupp can return multiple responses from a quick request, including information or images, and users can provide feedback on which models worked best for them and why.

The idea was to generate anonymous information about what people need from AI that model makers will pay for. Yupp said it signed up 1.3 million users and collected millions of likes every month. It also had a blackboard. The company said it also has a few AI labs as customers.

But alas, “we haven’t reached enough market scale” to survive, in part because AI models have ramped up and built up over the past few months, the founders said.

Although laboratories are paying a lot of money to respond, the current model – developed by companies such as Scale AI and Mercor – is to hire specialized experts, such as PhDs, and involve them in training courses.

On top of that, Silicon Valley is already looking 10 kilometers down the road, where AI is created, and used by other AIs. Model makers may want consumer feedback now, but they are preparing for the day when agents, not people, rule the internet world.

“The landscape of AI has changed dramatically in the last year alone and will continue to change rapidly,” Gupta, CEO of Yupp.ai, wrote in post on X about shutter plans. “The future is not just models but working systems.”

Yupp.ai raised a $33 million seed in 2024 led by Chris Dixon’s a16z crypto, the largest seed in its day. In addition, Yupp.ai raised checks from over 45 angel and small investors, it said. This included luminaries such as Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean; Twitter co-founder Biz Stone; Pinterest founder Evan Sharp; and Perplexity CEO Aravind Srinivas.

Gupta said some of Yupp’s employees have joined a “prestigious” AI company, and others are looking for their next gig. Yupp.ai did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.