Full-Time
Updated on 9/13/2026
Enterprise AI platform simulating human behavior
$200k - $400k/yr
San Francisco, CA, USA + 1 more
More locations: New York, NY, USA
In Person
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Simile builds AI models that simulate human behavior to forecast how individuals and groups will respond to different scenarios, using generative agents grounded in interviews and behavioral data. Its foundation-model approach powers these agents to mimic real decision-making for tasks like testing product launches, policy changes, or corporate announcements. The platform targets enterprises seeking decision intelligence, enabling rehearsals of earnings calls, litigation outcomes, and market strategies. By grounding agents in real data and behavioral science, Simile differentiates from general AI tools and focuses on helping organizations test decisions to reduce uncertainty before acting.
Company Size
51-200
Company Stage
Series B
Total Funding
$300M
Headquarters
Palo Alto, California
Founded
2025
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AI research startup Listen Labs scrubbed a $1.5B funding round for Salesforce talks. Listen Labs walked away from a signed Series C term sheet from Menlo Ventures, sources say. Listen Labs, a market research startup that uses voice AI to conduct customer interviews, recently signed a term sheet for a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation, with Menlo Ventures set to lead the round, according to several people with knowledge of the matter. But that round never closed, the people said. Listen Labs walked away from the signed term sheet, a rare occurrence in the venture world and one that is generally frowned upon, according to VCs. The financing likely collapsed because of acquisition talks with Salesforce. The CRM giant has recently held talks to buy Listen Labs for around $2 billion, Business Insider reported. The discussions are not finalized, however, and may not result in a deal, the outlet notes. Listen Labs is one of the leading startups in the rapidly growing field of automating customer research with AI. The three-year-old startup has about $30 million in annualized revenue, about three times more than Simile, a competing startup that predicts human behavior, according to two people familiar with the companies' financials. In late July, Simile announced that it had closed a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation led by Greenoaks - likely setting a new valuation benchmark for Listen Labs, one person said. If talks with Salesforce collapse, several VCs told TechCrunch that they expect Listen Labs to return to market and target a valuation of $2 billion or higher. While acquiring Listen Labs could strengthen Salesforce's AI capabilities by using the startup's AI to help predict customer needs, the CRM giant may ultimately decide that paying a 67 times revenue multiple is too steep a valuation, according to a person with experience negotiating exits to Salesforce. Listen Labs, Salesforce, Menlo Ventures, and Simile did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Listen Labs was co-founded in 2023 by Florian Jüngermann, a former German national champion in competitive computer programming, and Alfred Wahlforss, who previously founded a staffing startup called Bemlo. The two met while pursuing master's degrees at Harvard. Listen Labs' AI develops survey questions and interviews customers over audio or video. The resulting conversations are then packaged into reports and PowerPoint presentations, similar to those traditionally produced by human market researchers. Fortune 500 companies rely on this type of research to gauge customer needs and satisfaction with their brands and products, but traditional market research is expensive and can take weeks to complete. Listen Labs' technology helps reduce the time and cost of these projects, enabling companies to quickly understand how customers are reacting to product changes and iterate on them more efficiently. The startup's customers include Microsoft, Canva, Anthropic, and Sweetgreen. Listen Labs and Simile aren't the only startups using AI to disrupt the customer research market. Besides Simile, competitors in the space include Outset, Keplar, and Aaru. While some platforms automate interviews with real humans, others startups - like Aaru and Simile - take a synthetic approach, using AI to simulate human behavior and predict responses without interviewing anyone at all. Listen Labs was previously valued at $500 million when it announced a $69 million Series B round in late January led by Ribbit Capital, with participation from returning backers Sequoia, Conviction, and Pear VC.
Simile raises more than $200 million at a $2 billion post-money valuation. Key points * Greenoaks led the Series B, with Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, CVS Health Ventures and new investor Definition participating.[[1]] * The $2 billion figure is a post-money valuation; Simile did not disclose its pre-money valuation, share price or whether the round included secondary sales.[[1]] * Simile says revenue has increased fivefold since its February launch, but it provided no revenue figure, customer count or contract values.[[1]] Simile has raised more than $200 million in a Series B led by Greenoaks, giving the artificial-intelligence startup a $2 billion post-money valuation just five months after its public launch. Returning investors Index Ventures, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory and CVS Health Ventures participated, while Definition joined as a new investor.[[1]] The Palo Alto company builds AI models intended to simulate how people and groups respond to products, marketing, pricing and other decisions. Simile says customers include CVS Health, Wealthfront, Deloitte and Gallup, and that Fortune 100 enterprises have run tens of millions of simulations through its technology.[[1]] Those product and usage figures were reported by the company and have not been independently audited. Rapid growth, limited financial disclosure. Simile said revenue has grown fivefold since it launched in February and that its workforce now exceeds 50 people. It did not provide starting or current revenue, annual recurring revenue, customer totals, pricing or retention figures, making the valuation difficult to assess against conventional software metrics.[[1]] The company also did not explain whether the $2 billion valuation resulted solely from the price paid for newly issued shares or whether the financing contained secondary transactions. The company says its models begin with data from real people and are checked against human responses. Its website claims more than 7,000 evaluations across demographic groups and enterprise use cases, along with a confidence model designed to estimate the accuracy of each simulation.[[2]] Simile has not released enough underlying commercial validation data for outsiders to test those claims broadly. Simile said the proceeds would accelerate its work and support hiring researchers, engineers, designers and operators, without providing a spending breakdown.[[1]] Index Ventures led its $100 million Series A announced on February 12, alongside Bain Capital Ventures, A* and Hanabi Capital and several individual AI investors.[[3]] TechCrunch first reported the new financing as a $200 million Series B.[[4]] Discover more Computer Science Market intelligence reports AI market analysis Discover more AI infrastructure solutions Dictionaries & Encyclopedias Web Apps & Online Tools At the intersection of AI, tech, and markets. The stories that matter, in one email. Free - unsubscribe anytime.
Simile has raised over $200 million at a $2 billion post-money valuation, led by Greenoaks, to accelerate our mission: simulating all eight billion people.
Artificial intelligence startup Simile has secured $100 million in fresh funding led by Index Ventures, included participation from others.
Daily research News online. The global MR industry's daily paper since 2000. Follow DRNO on... Prediction tech company Simile launches with $100m. February 13 2026 AI firm Simile has secured $100m in funding, to develop its prediction technology, whose applications range from forecasting consumer behavior to suggesting likely questions from analysts during company earnings calls. Simile says it is building 'a foundation model that predicts human behavior in any situation, and a product that deploys it at scale.' According to Bloomberg News, the company emerged from stealth this week after training its model on a combination of consumer interviews, transaction data and behavioral experiment findings from scientific journals. For the first of these, it taps the probability-based, nationally representative panel of partner firm Gallup. The firm was founded by Stanford researchers Joon Park (CEO, pictured), Percy Liang and Michael Bernstein, and is backed by researcher Fei-Fei Li, co-director of Stanford's Human-Centered A.I. Institute; and OpenAI co-founder Andrej Karpathy. The $100m round was led by Index Ventures, with participation from Hanabi, A* and Bain Capital Ventures. Web site: www.simile.ai. All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated. Most viewed items in the last week... Each (*) indicates > 1,000 views. Select a region below...