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You.com is an artificial intelligence and search engine startup company.

The company was founded in 2020 by Richard Socher, the former chief scientist at Salesforce, and Bryan McCann, a former NLP researcher at Salesforce.[1]

History

The domain You.com was initially purchased in 1996 by Benioff.[2]

Following its 2020 founding, You.com opened its public beta on November 9, 2021,[3] funded in part by Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff.[1][4] Other investors include Breyer Capital, Sound Ventures, and Day One Ventures.[5] Benioff invested in You.com and transferred ownership of the You.com domain name to the company.[5]

In July 2022, You.com received Series A funding round led by Radical Ventures[6] with participation from Time Ventures, Breyer Capital, Norwest Venture Partners and Day One Ventures.[7] In September 2024, You.com received Series B funding led by Georgian.[8] In September 2025, You.com raised $100 million in Series C funding led by Cox Enterprises at a $1.5 billion valuation, achieving unicorn status.[9]

Business model

In 2023, You.com pivoted from its consumer focused search engine products to artificial intelligence tools.[9][10] Around January 2023, the company was incorporating AI chats into its search engine.[11]

You.com provides enterprise search APIs and AI tools, with web search capabilities that can be integrated into enterprise applications and AI agents.[12][13]

Products

On December 23, 2022, You.com was the first search engine to launch an LLM chatbot with live web results alongside its responses.[14][15][16] Initially known as YouChat,[17] the chatbot was primarily based on the GPT-3.5 large language model and could answer questions, suggest ideas,[18] translate text,[19] summarize articles, compose emails, and write code snippets, while staying up-to-date with current events [16] and citing sources. Several further versions of YouChat were released. The second version, called YouChat 2.0, was released on February 7, 2023,[20][21] incorporated improved conversational AI[22] and community-built applications by blending a large language model named C-A-L (Chat, Apps, and Links).[22][17] This update enabled YouChat to provide results in various formats, such as charts,[23] photos,[24] videos, tables, graphs, text or code, so users can find answers without leaving the search results page. YouChat 3.0, unveiled on May 4, 2023,[25] combined chat functionality with results from Reddit, TikTok, Stack Overflow and Wikipedia.

YouPro

On June 21, 2023, You.com introduced YouPro, a paid subscription.[26] Both free and paid versions provide access to large language models connected to the internet with citation capabilities.[27]

ARI

In February 2025, You.com launched ARI (Advanced Research and Insights), a deep research agent that scans over 400 sources simultaneously to produce research reports with verified citations and interactive graphs, charts, and visualizations.[28] The platform targets regulated industries where comprehensive source verification is critical, with customers including healthcare publishers and advisory firms.[29]

Reception

You.com was named one of TIME‘s Best Inventions of 2022.[30][31]

You.com’s ARI (Advanced Research & Insights) feature was named one of TIME‘s Best Inventions of 2025.[32]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiggers, Kyle (November 9, 2021). “AI-driven search engine You.com takes on Google with $20M”. VentureBeat. Archived from the original on June 2, 2022. Retrieved March 22, 2022.
  2. ^ Pardes, Arielle (March 31, 2023). “Search Has Its Goliath. Could Richard Socher Be Its David?”. The Information. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  3. ^ Robertson, Adi (November 9, 2021). “You.com wants to remake the search engine”. The Verge. Retrieved March 21, 2022.
  4. ^ Baranouski, Artsiom (January 30, 2024). “Top 10 Salesforce SPQ Alternatives for the North American Market”. Medium. Retrieved February 1, 2024.
  5. ^ a b Paresh, Dave (November 9, 2021). “Salesforce CEO Benioff invests in search engine startup You.com”. Reuters.
  6. ^ Primack, Dan (July 14, 2022). “You.com raises $25 million to challenge Google’s search dominance”. Axios. Retrieved April 7, 2023.
  7. ^ Wiggers, Kyle (July 14, 2022). “You raises $25M to fuel its AI-powered search engine”. TechCrunch. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  8. ^ Coldewey, Devin (September 4, 2024). “With $50M in new funding, You.com thinks its AI can beat Google on hard questions”. TechCrunch. Retrieved September 28, 2025.
  9. ^ a b Zaveri, Paayal (September 3, 2025). “You.com Becomes a Unicorn, Shifts Away From Search Engine Plans”. Bloomberg News.
  10. ^ Pierce, David (September 25, 2023). “The AI assistant revolution is more than 50 years in the making”. The Verge.
  11. ^ Griffith, Erin; Metz, Cade (January 7, 2023). “A New Area of A.I. Booms, Even Amid the Tech Gloom”. The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved June 14, 2026.
  12. ^ MacManus, Richard (October 3, 2025). “How You.com Survived ChatGPT With a Pivot to Enterprise AI”. The New Stack.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. ^ “You.com raises $100M to help developers build AI applications”. SiliconANGLE. September 3, 2025. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
  14. ^ Kahn, Imad (December 23, 2022). “Search Engine You.com Launches ChatGPT-Style Chatbot, But Don’t Trust It Fully Yet”. CNET. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  15. ^ Kulp, Patrick (January 24, 2024). “How this early LLM researcher is taking on ChatGPT with his own search engine”. Tech Brew.
  16. ^ a b Hachman, Mark. “You.com’s AI-infused Google rival provides a tantalizing glimpse of the future”. PCWorld.
  17. ^ a b Eliaçık, Eray. “You.com’s AI-powered features are already in use, unlike Google”. Dataconomy.
  18. ^ You.com (May 10, 2023). “Introducing YouChat — The AI Search Assistant that Lives in Your Search Engine”. Medium.
  19. ^ Roth, Emma. “Meet the companies trying to keep up with ChatGPT”. The Verge.
  20. ^ You.com (May 10, 2023). “Introducing YouChat 2.0 — Unlock the Power of AI with the Search Assistant that Works for You”. Medium.
  21. ^ Nuñez, Michael. “VentureBeat Q&A: Richard Socher, cofounder and CEO of You.com, says Google is facing a classic innovator’s dilemma”. VentureBeat.
  22. ^ a b Nuñez, Michael. “You.com challenges Google, Microsoft with launch of ‘multimodal conversational AI’ in search”. VentureBeat.
  23. ^ Özergin, Özgürcan. “How to use You.com: YouChat, YouImagine, and more”. TechBriefly.
  24. ^ Deutscher, Maria. “You.com debuts multimodal AI chatbot for search”. SiliconANGLE.
  25. ^ “YouChat 3.0 is here — Experience the Ultimate Chat Search”. You.com. Retrieved June 12, 2023.
  26. ^ Press, Gil (June 21, 2023). “You.com Launches Subscription Service For Cutting-Edge Generative AI Search Chatbot”. Forbes.
  27. ^ Oritz, Sabrina (March 20, 2024). “YouPro lets me access every popular premium AI chatbot for $20/month – but there’s a catch”. ZDNET.
  28. ^ Nuñez, Michael (February 27, 2025). “You.com unveils AI research agent that processes 400+ sources at once”. VentureBeat. Archived from the original on March 28, 2025. Retrieved November 7, 2025.
  29. ^ Press, Gil. “You.com Launches AI Research Agent, Targeting Regulated Industries”. Forbes.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  30. ^ “The Best Inventions of 2022”. Time. Retrieved April 7, 2024.
  31. ^ Mullich, Joe (November 10, 2022). “Ad-free Search You.com”. Time.
  32. ^ Mullich, Joe (October 9, 2025). “The Best Inventions of 2025”. TIME.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)