AI startup LMArena triples its valuation to $1.7 billion in latest fundraise

Jan 6 (Reuters) - LMArena said on Tuesday its valuation had tripled to $1.7 billion in about ​eight months, following a new funding round where ‌it raised $150 million, as investors continue to pour money into artificial ‌intelligence startups.

Investor enthusiasm for generative AI surged after ChatGPT's launch in 2022 showed its commercilization potential, leading to a race for adoption and a scramble on ⁠Wall Street for exposure ‌to key firms in the boom.

LMArena, formerly known as Chatbot Arena, is a web‑based ‍platform that allows users to compare large language models, including OpenAI's ChatGPT, Anthropic's Claude and Google's Gemini, through anonymous, ​crowd-sourced evaluations.

"To measure the real utility of AI, ‌we need to put it in the hands of real users. LMArena does exactly this," said Anastasios Angelopoulos, co-founder and CEO of LMArena.

The fundraise was co-led by Felicis and UC Investments (University of California), with participation ⁠from Silicon Valley giant Andreessen ​Horowitz, The House Fund, LDVP, ​Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Laude Ventures.

LMArena said it will use the fresh capital ‍to operate its ⁠platform, expand its technical team and strengthen research capabilities.

In the previous funding round in May, the ⁠company raised $100 million at the seed-round level, led by a16z ‌and UC Investments.

(Reporting by Pragyan Kalita in ‌Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)