Grammarly raises $110 million to check your typos and grammar mistakes
Investors are betting big on spelling mistakes and misshapen sentences.
San Francisco startup Grammarly just raised $110 million to take its AI-driven grammar-checking tool to the next level. The funding, led by General Catalyst and Spark Capital, marks the first venture capital round in the company's eight-year life.
The company's pitch centers on its machine learning capabilities. It claims this technology can dig into the substance of users' writing in a way that's not possible with Microsoft Word or other autocorrect programs.
Grammarly says it can advise not only on proper grammatical structure but on tone and word selection as well.
Grammarly's service has been growing fast since it launched its free version two years ago. It now boasts more than 6.9 million daily active users. Most use the tool for free, but a smaller portion pay $11.99 per month for access to the premium tier, which includes extra features like genre-specific tips and a plagiarism detector.
That steady expansion prompted the company's leadership to look for outside funding for the first time.
"We selected an investor group with a proven track record of building leading consumer Internet and deep technology companies," a spokesperson said. "Their expertise and resources will be instrumental in accelerating growth in the years to come."
It seems there's a big appetite for reminders about the difference between "your" and "you're."
Patrick Kulp is a Business Reporter at Mashable. Patrick covers digital advertising, online retail and the future of work. A graduate of UC Santa Barbara with a degree in political science and economics, he previously worked at the Pacific Coast Business Times.
