The AI detection startup GPTZero, founded three years ago by Edward Tian as part of his senior thesis at Princeton, has been acquired by Superhuman, the companies announced on Tuesday.
While the financial details of the acquisition remain undisclosed, Tian revealed to Business Insider that GPTZero has grown to over 19 million registered users, generating an annual recurring revenue of $30 million.
Tian mentioned to TechCrunch in 2024 that the company is already profitable. He and co-founder Alex Cui, a long-time friend, raised an initial seed funding of $3.5 million led by Uncork Capital, which was followed by a $10 million Series A round in June 2024, spearheaded by Nikhil Basu Trivedi, co-founder of Footwork. Other investors included Reach Capital, Jack Altman’s Alt Capital, and Neo, bringing the total funding to $13.5 million.
Superhuman emerged after Grammarly acquired the email service provider and rebranded it. The platform already features an AI detection tool, while GPTZero’s primary goal is to enable individuals to recognize and counteract poorly generated AI content. Grammarly’s tool assists users, particularly students, in assessing whether their writing seems AI-generated and offers suggestions for revisions. Regarding the acquisition, Superhuman explained that having “two AI detectors is better than one.”
