According to Gigazine, the Japanese startup Shizuku AI has recently wrapped up a seed funding round. This round was spearheaded by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), the preeminent venture capital firm in the United States. Notably, Adam D'Angelo, a board member of OpenAI, also made a personal investment. The total funding secured stands at approximately $15 million, and with this infusion, the company is now valued at around $75 million. This achievement marks Shizuku AI as the first Japanese AI firm to win investment from a16z.

Founded by Akio Kodaira, Shizuku AI is dedicated to crafting AI companions that seamlessly blend cutting-edge technology with the aesthetic charm of Japanese characters. Its flagship product, the AI virtual streamer Shizuku, boasts multilingual speech synthesis capabilities and enables cross-platform interactions. It has already been deployed across various channels, including YouTube, Discord, and X (formerly known as Twitter).

Shizuku AI has ambitious plans to forge a feedback loop through a community of real users. This initiative aims to tackle prevalent issues in current AI companions, such as monotonous dialogue and a lack of initiative. Additionally, the company has established a Japanese AI lab with the lofty goal of creating the "world's most beloved AI partner."