a16z leads Conway Research’s first financing for on-device AI
The investment backs Sigil Wen’s Underdog assistant, with the round size undisclosed.
Andreessen Horowitz announced on October 2 that it was leading Conway Research’s first financing. The company and investor did not disclose the amount or a named venture stage.
Other backers identified in a subsequent founder interview include Khosla Ventures, Hummingbird, SV Angel and the Menlo Ventures–Anthropic Anthology Fund. Individual investors include Patrick Collison, Guillermo Rauch, Noam Brown and Deedy Das.
Conway is developing Underdog, a personal assistant built to run models on devices users already own. Its approach pairs model development with an inference engine designed for consumer hardware, seeking to reduce dependence on cloud processing and recurring computing bills.