Exclusive: Roboflow, vision AI startup, raises $40 million Series B

When I met Joseph Nelson, CEO and cofounder of Roboflow, I asked him a question that I ask pretty much everyone: If we randomly met at a party, how would you explain what your company does?

“I tell people that Roboflow makes developer tools to create a sense of visual understanding,” Nelson told me. But, he added, depending on the person’s job, “I then will immediately jump to giving them an example that makes it real for them.”

Then, for the next ten minutes, Nelson delighted in reeling off different professions and the corresponding visual use cases for Roboflow. For doctors, think medical imaging and diagnostics. Firefighters, how about early wildfire detection? If someone works in environmental research, Nelson points out that Roboflow is already being used to monitor coral reefs and underwater ecosystems. There are so many potential use cases for Roboflow, a computer vision startup, because the company deals in something so fundamental, even primal—what we see. 

Roboflow has raised $40 million for its Series B, Fortune has exclusively learned. The round was led by GV, with Craft Ventures and Y Combinator joining along with Vercel’s Guillermo Rauch, Microsoft’s Jeff Dean, and Replit’s Amjad Masad. The company’s previous investors include Lachy Groom, Sam Altman, and Scott Belsky.

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