On Wednesday, Anthropic announced its acquisition of Vercept, an AI startup with strong ties to Seattle’s tech community, following its purchase of coding engine Bun in December. Vercept developed advanced AI tools, including Vy, a cloud-based agent capable of operating a MacBook remotely. As part of the acquisition, Vercept’s product will be discontinued on March 25. The startup, which graduated from the A12 AI incubator, had raised around $50 million, including a notable $16 million seed round. Vercept co-founder Matt Deitke recently joined Meta’s Superintelligence Lab, while CEO Kiana Ehsani hailed the acquisition. Tensions surfaced between investors, particularly between Oren Etzioni and lead investor Seth Bannon, regarding Vercept’s direction. Despite not all co-founders joining Anthropic, Ehsani expressed optimism about collaborating with a strong team to accelerate their AI vision. The deal’s terms remain undisclosed, though Etzioni noted a positive return on his investment.
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