As companies in the AI sector strive to enhance the precision of Large Language Models and the applications that utilize them, a startup emerging as a pivotal collaborator in this endeavor has announced a significant funding round to support its expansion. Turing, an organization that collaborates with a vast network of engineers to contribute coding efforts to various AI initiatives—including the development of LLMs for OpenAI and other enterprises—has successfully raised $111 million in Series E funding, effectively doubling its valuation to $2.2 billion.
According to CEO Jonathan Siddharth in an interview with TechCrunch, Turing currently boasts an annualized revenue run rate (ARR) of approximately $167 million, and the company is already profitable. The funding will be allocated toward broadening its customer base and diversifying its use cases. Turing states that it collaborates with around 4 million developers worldwide.
Leading this funding round is Khazanah Nasional Berhad, Malaysia’s sovereign wealth fund, with additional contributions from Westbridge Capital, Sozo Ventures, Uphonest Capital, AltaIR Capital, Amino Capital, Plug and Play, MVP Ventures, Fortius Ventures, Gaingels, and Mastodon Capital Management. Turing, based in Palo Alto, has raised a total of $225 million to date.
Turing’s emergence as a significant partner for AI companies is a shift from its initial concept. Initially, it functioned as an HR technology startup, creating a platform designed for evaluating and hiring remote coders. This business began to thrive amidst the COVID-19 pandemic as the need for effective tools to manage remote teams surged, propelling the company to unicorn status.
This success also attracted a different form of attention.
As reported by Semafor last year, Siddharth was invited to meet with OpenAI in 2022, expecting to discuss the recruitment of engineers for his startup. Instead, the meeting turned out to be a proposal: OpenAI researchers realized that incorporating code into training datasets significantly enhanced the model’s reasoning capabilities and sought Turing’s assistance in generating such code.
Siddharth agreed, leading Turing to pivot toward a new business focus, which now includes partnerships with several foundational AI companies as well as organizations that develop applications built on those LLMs.
This transition has not completely shifted Turing’s direction; Siddharth noted that the company continues to generate a considerable amount of revenue from its original business model focused on sourcing coding talent, although he chose not to disclose the exact figures.
Compiled by Techarena.au.
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