Reducto has launched r-1, a document parsing model that converts complex PDFs, scans, and spreadsheets into structured data for AI systems at 1¢ per page. The company says r-1 reduces parsing errors by up to 20% compared with existing tools whilst costing up to six times less than multi-tool alternatives. The model handles documents where meaning is encoded in tables, handwriting, formatting, and layout. It combines layout detection, reading order, tables, formatting, and citations in a single model, eliminating the need for multiple tools. Reducto is offering up to $5,000 in credits for organisations to test r-1 on difficult documents. The company has raised more than $108 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, processing over a billion pages monthly.

DokuBrain, an intelligent document processing platform, has positioned itself as a comprehensive alternative to Reducto, which recently raised $108 million from Andreessen Horowitz. Whilst Reducto excels at parsing complex PDFs into LLM-ready JSON for AI pipelines, it lacks business user interfaces, workflow automation and governance features. DokuBrain offers document classification across 16+ types, hybrid search capabilities, RAG Q&A with citations, PII detection and audit trails. The platform includes both API access and a business user interface, addressing needs beyond pure parsing. It's self-hostable and targets SMBs in finance, legal and operations sectors. Other alternatives include LlamaParse for RAG-focused pipelines within the LlamaIndex ecosystem, and Nanonets for finance-specific document workflows. Reducto's credit-based pricing starts at $300 monthly for parsing, but costs can exceed $2,000 for high-volume processing.

Reducto has acquired AI learning platform Opennote to expand its document intelligence capabilities, the companies announced this week. Financial terms were not disclosed. Founded in 2023, Reducto develops tools combining optical character recognition with vision-language models to convert unstructured files into AI-readable data. The company raised $75 million in a Series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz last year, bringing total funding to over $100 million. Opennote, launched earlier this year, offered AI-powered learning tools for students, including personalised tutoring and note organisation. The platform had attracted over 50,000 users. The acquisition strengthens Reducto's work on "document agents", AI systems designed to interpret and act on large volumes of unstructured information. The Opennote team will join immediately to develop products focused on extraction and AI workflow integration.