Jane.ai, creators of the first truly AI-Powered Teammate designed for everyone in the workplace, officially launched today with $8.4 million in funding from a Midwest network of private and angel investors. The company, founded by former Answers.com CEO David Karandish, is on a mission to develop an AI-based platform that significantly increases workplace productivity by eliminating wasted time and providing a better overall workplace experience for employees. With its Series A financing, Jane.ai will accelerate commercialization and adoption of its Jane AI-Powered Teammate beyond the initial pilot customers already using the platform in the workplace today.

As organizations continue to build, buy and deploy technology as part of their core businesses, employees are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of information stored across the various apps, platforms and databases they use to do their jobs. This has led to a workplace environment where employees spend up to 35 percent of their time simply looking for information and where it takes more than 20 minutes to get back on task after each interruption. It's no surprise then, that according to a study by McKinsey and Company, employees spend more than 50 percent of a typical workday orchestrating work, rather than actually producing work. This not only leads to billions of dollars in wasted productivity across all industries, but also prevents employees from being successful at work.

"We created Jane to help everyday workers be more successful by eliminating the wasted time and effort that comes from searching for basic workplace information," said David Karandish, CEO and Founder of Jane.ai. "We've all grown accustomed to the convenience of on-demand, personalized services and voice-controlled speakers at home, but we have yet to benefit from these same conveniences at work. Jane is an intuitive, intelligent AI-Powered Teammate who gives employees instant access to the information they need to do their jobs well. As a result, employees are happier and more productive while generating additional value for their company."

Jane is the first AI-Powered platform built for the workplace that makes a company's information instantly available over chat. Jane connects all of an organization's siloed information across platforms, apps, teams and databases, and surfaces information through a real-time, conversational interface. When an inquiry is posed to Jane, she connects to the company's cloud-based apps, mines intel from docs, learns the team's tribal knowledge to provide an instant response. Jane.ai features a human-assisted "CoPilot" function; when Jane is asked a question she can't answer - such as an obscure company acronym - she flags it for a team member to review. Once the team member provides the answer, it's stored in Jane's knowledge base, meaning from that point forward, Jane will know the answer to that question. Jane continues to grow and learn over time, just like a human team member would.

"We talk to companies every day who struggle with the number of applications their team members need to do their jobs and the resulting amount of information that stems from using those tools," said Lisa Nichols, CEO of Technology Partners and a Jane.ai investor. "Jane is an intuitive chat interface that helps employees find information faster and more easily focus on their jobs, versus having to hunt through various applications or interrupt a colleague. We're excited to collaborate with David and the Jane.ai team in its mission to eliminate wasted time for employees and boost productivity for companies everywhere."

To date, Jane.ai has deployed pilots and initial integrations with a variety of customers ranging from Fortune 500 investment companies to academic institutions. One of those includes Karandish's alma mater, Washington University in St. Louis, where the university is leveraging the technology to help faculty engage with the Office of Technology Management to better capitalize on its intellectual property. In another example, Ameren Corporation - one of the largest electric utility companies in the U.S. - is deploying Jane in a pilot to answer FAQs. Jane.ai currently integrates with today's most popular workplace applications and platforms including Office 365, Slack, Salesforce and Zenefits, with more integrations and partnerships on the horizon. To learn more about Jane.ai or request a demo, visit www.jane.ai.

About Jane.ai
Jane.ai is an artificial intelligence platform that empowers employees to access their company's intelligence in the simplest way possible -- through a conversational interface. Jane makes company information accessible by integrating with apps, mining intel from docs, and learning tribal knowledge -- giving employees instant access to the information they need in moments instead of hours. Jane.ai was founded in St. Louis, Missouri in 2017 by serial entrepreneurs David Karandish and Chris Sims, and is backed by a network of Midwest investors. Jane.ai's current clients include Washington University in St. Louis, USA Mortgage, and Ameren, among others.

More information can be found at www.jane.ai or on social media on Twitter at @jane_ai, Facebook and LinkedIn at @teamjane, and on Instagram at @teamjane.ai.