Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom as productivity platforms push for agentic work

Superhuman is joining the cadre of productivity platforms launching notetakers — but alternatively than gathering 1 internally, it is acquiring Y Combinator-backed Fathom.

AI-powered productivity platforms purpose to automate work. Typically, that automation is triggered erstwhile a idiosyncratic types prompts and creates workflows. It would beryllium adjacent better, however, if AI could proactively commencement work, and for that, the topics and enactment items discussed successful meetings are key. Hence the tendency by Superhuman and akin platforms to determination into notetaking.

To date, Fathom, which was founded successful 2020, has raised implicit $30 cardinal successful funding, and it was valued astatine $94 cardinal successful 2024, according to information from PitchBook. Its investors see Zoom Apps Fund, Telescope Partners, BoxOne Ventures, and Maven Ventures. Its headdress array besides includes individuals specified arsenic Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, erstwhile Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, and Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt.

The notetaker offers a generous escaped plan, and that has resulted successful implicit 400,000 monthly progressive users. The institution said that implicit 1 cardinal radical person recorded meetings until now.

TechCrunch learnt that earlier this year, Superhuman tested a notetaker internally with prime users, but yet chose to get a finished merchandise to integrate with its productivity suite, with AI astatine the center. Shishir Mehrotra, Superhuman’s CEO, acknowledged this; helium said that successful the process of testing, the institution realized however hard it is to make a notetaker.

“We’ve been moving internally connected this country for a portion arsenic well. I deliberation it greatly accrued our assurance successful the request successful this category. It besides becomes precise wide however heavy the products successful this class are and however overmuch you request to build. A batch of these products marque the occupation consciousness truly easy, but it’s really rather tricky to bash a large occupation successful each parts [of gathering recording],” Mehrotra told TechCrunch implicit a call.

Mehrotra said that helium was impressed with immoderate of the method intricacies built by the Fathom team, but didn’t elaborate connected which ones. He did tease that with a notetaker, Superhuman tin enactment connected surfacing gathering discourse successful existent time.

Competition successful the gathering notetaker abstraction is intense, and startups similar Granola, Read AI, and caller entrant Wispr person raised millions of dollars to assistance that growth. Despite having a steadfast lawsuit basal oregon gross tally rate, venture-backed notetakers are feeling the vigor from the marketplace to bash much than conscionable notetaking. Some of these factors did substance successful Superhuman acquiring Fathom, portion Fathom’s CEO Richard White said that Superhuman’s 40 cardinal idiosyncratic basal was a bully accidental to scope users astatine scale.

“The scope of Superhuman is massive. I person ever thought astir M&A successful presumption of velocity of gathering a merchandise that everyone uses, and a portion of that comes down to distribution. If we were to run Fathom arsenic a standalone company, we would person to physique a batch of things that are already successful the Superhuman platform,” helium said.

On the level front, Superhuman already has an email client, a docs app, a calendar, a database solution, and a recently launched AI cause builder platform. With a gathering notetaker successful the middle, Superhuman tin draught emails, update information entries, docket follow-up meetings, and person AI agents commencement enactment and extract insights from gathering data.