Raycast Raises $30M to Expand Beyond Mac and iOS

Raycast raised $30 million in a Series B round to expand its Mac app to Windows and iOS.
Raycast offers AI features through multiple large language models (LLMs), including GPT-4, Claude, Llama, and Gemini.

Productivity app Raycast has secured $30 million in funding to accelerate its growth and bring its platform to Windows and iOS. The company, founded by former Facebook engineers Thomas Paul Mann and Petr Nikolaev, aims to streamline workflows for users by providing a unified interface for applications, files, commands, and workflows.

With its extension-based architecture, Raycast offers a customizable experience, allowing users to integrate third-party tools and automate tasks. The platform has gained popularity among developers, but the company is now targeting a broader audience of professionals who spend significant time working on computers.

"We started Raycast to solve our own problem as developers," Mann said. "We felt there were too many tools that we had to deal with on a day-to-day basis – they were stealing our focus, and we wanted a way to access all the information we need for our job quickly."

Raycast’s expansion plans include an iOS app, now open for a waitlist, and a Windows app, both incorporating AI capabilities. The iOS version will serve as a companion tool, with Raycast AI offering quick access to services and LLMs, such as OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google’s Gemini.

With more than 20,000 developers building extensions and “hundreds of thousands” of daily users, Raycast is leveraging its growing community to fuel cross-platform ambitions. Mann stated, "With the funding, we can accelerate that." Backers include Accel, Coatue, and industry leaders like GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke and Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke.

With this new funding, Raycast is well-positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for productivity tools and expand its reach beyond the Mac market.

Edited by Harshajit Sarmah