Vals raises $40M to set AI benchmarking gold standard
vals, backed by andreessen horowitz, aims to fix imperfect ai benchmarking system with new evaluation methods. this impacts ai companies' ability to validate model capabilities.
vals, a 2024 startup, secured $40 million in series a funding led by andreessen horowitz, following a seed round led by 8vc and bloomberg beta. the company, co-founded by 25-year-old rayan krishnan, seeks to improve ai benchmarking by evaluating models on complex tasks in industries like law, finance, and coding, rather than just general knowledge. vals' approach aims to verify that models can perform tasks at a level comparable to humans, and also assess potential negative implications. the company's revenue has grown eight times year-over-year, and its staff has tripled from eight people.