Windmill, the AI Company That Bets on Humans, Raises $12M

Inspired Capital leads the seed round for the company building the context graph for your people — an AI-native system built on a simple bet: the biggest workforce transformation in a generation is a people problem, and HR is the function best equipped to lead it.

NEW YORK, April 28, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- While the AI industry is racing to replace people, Windmill is building the technology to make them irreplaceable.

Windmill, the context graph for your people, today announced an $12M fundraise led by Inspired Capital, with participation from Primary Venture Partners, Founder Collective, and Oceans Ventures. The company has grown to over 100 customers including Kalshi, Rho and Merge, since launching their performance reviews product in November 2025.

"There's no question that AI tools will transform how we all work," said Max Shaw, CEO and co-founder at Windmill. "We're building the infrastructure to make sure that the people don't get left behind, by giving companies tools to support their people, not replace them"

Why People Matter More, Not Less in the Age of AI

Every company in the world is being restructured around AI. Management layers are disappearing, roles are merging, and entire functions are being redefined by what AI can now do.

As AI gives individuals leverage that used to require entire teams, the value of each person is going up. Every employee is doing more complex, creative, higher-judgment work. Companies are now tasked with managing capability, potential, and the uniquely human skills that AI makes more important by the day.

"I've had upwards of 10,000 people come through companies I've run," said Brian Distelburger, co-founder at Windmill. "Talk to any executive and they'll talk about how important people are. When you drill down a few levels into what they're doing to make sure they have the right people, in the right roles, working on the right things, there's not much depth there."

But most companies have no system for understanding any of it. The knowledge of who's doing what, who's growing, who's underutilized, who elevates the people around them — that lives in the heads of a handful of managers and nowhere else. It's lossy, biased, and impossible to act on at scale. You can't ask an AI agent to identify your highest-performing teams, surface bottlenecks, or help you staff the right people on a critical project, because the context doesn't exist. Companies have a system of record for every asset except the one that matters most.

"Every headline right now is about AI replacing workers. We think that's the wrong bet. The best organizations of the next decade won't be the ones that eliminate the most headcount. They'll be the ones that use AI to build workforces that are continuously supported and developed. Doing so requires new infrastructure, and that's exactly what Windmill is building. Max, Brian, and Mark have the conviction and the depth to go after this problem the right way, and we're proud to be on the journey with them."

— Alexa von Tobel, Managing Partner, Inspired Capital

HR's Moment

There's a function that understands org design, talent development, change management, and culture better than anyone else in the building. The AI transformation just handed HR the most strategic mandate in the company: lead the people side of the biggest workforce shift in a generation.

As organizations get flatter and faster, the strategic adjustments companies used to make annually now need to happen more frequently. That means having the right people in the right roles, operating effectively in your specific environment, has never mattered more, and has never been harder to get right.

But you can't lead a transformation like this with annual surveys and spreadsheets. You need to actually know what's happening with your people in real time.

What Windmill Is Building

Windmill started with one of the most broken processes in the workplace: performance reviews. It rebuilt the review process to match how modern companies actually work. The platform integrates with Slack, GitHub, Google Workspace, and 30+ other tools where work already happens, so reviews never start from a blank page and are completed 90% faster with 93% employee satisfaction.

AI Performance reviews are just the first proof point. Underneath them is what Windmill calls the context graph — a continuously updated, cited understanding of the workforce:

1. People — who they are and how they connect
2. Evidence — what actually happened
3. Expectations — what good looks like
4. Perspectives — what people think

Every insight traces back to a specific Slack thread, pull request, or piece of documentation. "At most companies, the most important context about work and people isn't captured in one place," said Shaw. "It's scattered across apps, notes, conversations, and in the minds of managers. That makes important decisions about people far too dependent on memory and intuition alone. And if you want agents anywhere near those decisions, you first need a systematic way to organize the underlying context. We're building that layer."

The context graph is accessible through Windy, Windmill's AI agent, the Windmill web app, and full MCP and API support, making context about your people available wherever a company needs it.

About Windmill

Windmill is the context graph for your people. A continuous, cited understanding of your workforce that enables HR to lead strategically, managers to see their teams clearly, and every person's work to speak for itself. It starts with performance reviews that write themselves. Free for up to 10 users. Learn more at gowindmill.com.

SOURCE Windmill