Toronto-based Borderless AI has emerged from stealth with $27 million in seed funding for Alberni, its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered HR assistant.
Borderless AI claims to be the first company in the world to bring AI agents to HR, with Alberni automating the process of onboarding, managing, and paying international team members. The startup says Alberni is now able to answer employment law, finance, or tax queries in 170 languages, and is ready for global expansion.
Borderless AI calls Cohere a “strategic partner,” claiming to be the only company deploy its LLM to HR.
“We are firm believers that AI agents will become commonplace for companies just like websites in the 90s and mobile apps in the 2000s,” Borderless AI co-founder and CEO Willson Cross said in a statement. “Leveraging conversational AI, our platform automates many of the complexities within the global HR stack, without hallucinations, such as payroll set-up, time-off requests, or employment agreement generation.”
The $27-million seed round was led by Susquehanna and Aglaé Ventures with participation from other unnamed institutional investors. Aglaé Ventures is the principal investment vehicle of Bernard Arnault, the French businessman behind luxury goods brand LVMH and currently the richest man in the world, according to Forbes. Aglaé Ventures counts Airbnb, Bytedance, Netflix, and many other big name companies as part of its portfolio
Borderless AI’s platform was developed with the large language model (LLM) created by Toronto-based OpenAI rival Cohere. Borderless AI calls Cohere a “strategic partner,” claiming to be the only company deploying Cohere’s LLM to HR.
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“Globalization isn’t going anywhere and companies will rely on seamless technology like Borderless AI and Alberni to help them scale successfully on a global level,” Aglaé Ventures partner Miyuki Matsumoto said in a statement. “We strongly believe that AI agents for HR will become mainstream and we’re thrilled to be a part of this journey.”
Borderless AI was founded in 2022 by Cross and former Lyft board chairman Sean Aggarwal. Cross previously co-founded and led GoFetch, a pet services platform he sold in 2018 shortly after raising $3.4 million. Cross also foundedUBC Bitcoin Jobs, an online job board that matched university students with job opportunities in the cryptocurrency industry.
Aggarwal will act as Borderless AI’s chairman, bringing experience from his tenure as Paypal’s former vice president of finance and Trulia’s CFO, where he led the company to IPO and eventual acquisition by Zillow for $2.5 billion
Borderless AI counts dating app Raya, global architecture firm MG2, and FinTech startup Affiniti among its initial customers.
Feature image courtesy Borderless AI.
