AI startup Findo.io, a personal search assistant, closes on $3 million Seed 1 Round

Findo.io is going to solve the "infobesity" problem of 300 million people.

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Jun 01, 2016, 07:00 ET

MENLO PARK, Calif., June 1, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Findo.io, an AI search assistant, is announcing a $3 million Series Seed 1 investment from ABBYY PLC - a leading global provider of AI and language-based technologies.

Findo.io AI assistant enables users to quickly find information buried in a wide array of documents, slides, audio files, images, or any other information from sources as varied as Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote and Gmail, Exchange and Outlook. Findo search bots can search from Slack, Telegram, Facebook Messenger and Skype and deliver results right to the messenger.

Findo.io is going to solve the "infobesity" problem of 300 million people.

"You know that file exists, but you can't find it; we all experience these problems in this age of infobesity," said Gary A. Fowler, Co-Founder and CEO of Findo. "The average user has more than 500,000 emails, files, attachments, contacts and messages stored across a wide range of online and local devices."

According to Findo research, 19% of respondents have had these problems because they have forgotten where they stored the file. Over 67% percent had these problems because they couldn't recall the right keyword (the name of that person, that company, etc.).

"The ability to find information both online and locally is becoming extremely difficult for users," said Dr. David Yang, Co-Founder and Chairman of Findo. "Our estimates show that over 300 million of the total email and file searches have failed over the last 24 hours."

Findo.io delivers three innovations that fundamentally change how users can access their data: multi-source searching, natural language processing, and messenger search bots.

"You download Findo.io from the Apple Appstore, connect with one click all of your personal cloud locations (Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, Gmail, Outlook, Laptop, Slack, etc.), and Findo's intelligent search assistant will find files, emails, attachments or contacts from one place," said Bill Reichert, Garage Technology Ventures and an advisor to Findo.

Findo.io's proprietary AI technology can find a file even when the user can't recall the exact keyword. For example, when a user types "get last meeting recap from John," Findo will present all relevant meeting records. It extracts and builds relationships between elements such as phones, links, presentations, meeting recaps, agendas, locations, invoices, people, companies, etc. Findo will deliver the requested data very quickly using the relationships it has built between elements.

Users can also search by description. Findo.io extracts entities and ontological elements and builds relationships between them. So if a user forgot the name of a person but remembers their profession and city, they can type, "find the phone number of the doctor from Boston." Findo will deliver the requested data very quickly using the relationships it has built between elements.

"Findo's beta release is like a child, learning and growing, albeit a gifted child. Please don't expect it to know everything from day one, although by using it you will see the results," said Dr. David Yang.

Findo is not only an assistant for a single person, but is also a powerful collaboration tool. Findo intelligent search bots are integrated into Facebook Messenger, Slack, Telegram and Skype, allowing users to work in the group more effectively, find information without leaving the chat, and share immediately right within the messenger.

"We are at the right time at the right place. The world is changing; all consumer and professional communication is relocating to messengers," Fowler said. "Findo.io brings a unique way to deliver search results right into the messenger, so users can concentrate on their work without having to switch between applications."

Findo, Inc. pays special attention to security: "Security is their highest priority," said Rick Orloff, an Advisory Board member of Findo, CSO of Code 42 Software, Inc., a provider of endpoint data protection and security for the enterprise, and former top security officer of Apple and eBay.

The product is ready and available today at Findo.io. The mobile app can be found at Appstore.

Contact Findo.io at +1 (650) 440-8969, [email protected]

About Findo

Findo.io is the intelligent search assistant for personal cloud, messenger and offline files which enables users to locate important information faster and more easily using natural language processing.

A Delaware-registered corporation headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, Findo was co-founded by award-winning serial entrepreneurs Gary A. Fowler and David Yang. The Findo team has 16 engineers, AI scientists and managers, two PhDs, and nine filed patents.

The list of supported search locations expands monthly. As of May 2016 Findo supports Slack, Skype, Facebook, Telegram, Dropbox, Gmail, Google Drive, Evernote, Exchange, Outlook, MacOS, Windows 10 and iOS. www.findo.io Contact: Gary Fowler +1 (650) 440-8969, [email protected] or [email protected].

About ABBYY

ABBYY was founded by Dr. David Yang in 1989 while he was a university student. ABBYY is a leading global provider of AI, language-based and imaging technologies and solutions that help businesses to action information with over 1200 employees. The company sets the standard in content capture, automated recognition and innovative AI and language-based technologies that integrate across the information lifecycle. ABBYY technologies are licensed by some of the largest international enterprises and government organizations, as well as SMBs and individuals. The company maintains offices in Australia, Canada, Cyprus, France, Germany, Japan, Russia, Spain, Taiwan, UAE, the UK, Ukraine, and the United States. www.abbyy.com Media Contact: Margaret Pereira, +1 925-989-8109, [email protected]