Yoodli just pulled off something rare in today's AI landscape - tripling its valuation to over $300 million by building technology designed to enhance rather than replace human capabilities. The Seattle startup's $40 million Series B, led by WestBridge Capital, comes just six months after its Series A, signaling investor confidence in AI tools that keep humans in control.
The numbers alone tell a compelling story. Yoodli just closed a $40 million Series B that tripled its valuation to over $300 million in six months flat. But the real story isn't the math - it's the philosophy driving one of the fastest-growing AI startups you've probably never heard of.
While most AI companies race to automate jobs out of existence, Yoodli's ex-Google founders are building the opposite: technology that makes humans better at being human. The Seattle-based startup uses AI to create hyper-realistic training scenarios for communication skills, from sales calls to leadership coaching sessions.
"I philosophically believe that AI can get you from a zero to an eight or nine," co-founder Varun Puri told TechCrunch. "But the pure essence of who you are and your authenticity - that human feedback will always exist."
Puri would know something about communication barriers. After moving from India to the U.S. at 18, he watched talented international students and young professionals struggle not with technical skills, but with expressing ideas confidently in English. That personal experience, combined with his background handling special projects for Sergey Brin at Google X, led him to co-found Yoodli with former Apple engineer Esha Joshi in 2021.
The timing couldn't be better. As workplace anxiety around AI replacement hits fever pitch, enterprise customers are flocking to tools that enhance human capabilities instead of eliminating them. Google, Snowflake, Databricks, RingCentral, and Sandler Sales now use Yoodli's platform for employee training - a client roster that helped drive 900% growth in average recurring revenue over the past 12 months.
Here's what makes Yoodli different from traditional corporate training: instead of forcing employees to sit through static video content at 4x speed, the platform creates interactive AI scenarios tailored to specific roles and industries. Sales reps practice difficult customer conversations. Managers rehearse performance reviews. Job candidates run through technical interviews. Each session provides structured feedback on everything from pace and clarity to emotional intelligence.
