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Tempo, the calendar app that wants to be a smarter digital assistant, raised $10 million dollars in its first round of funding, its creator Tempo AI announced Thursday.
The money is going toward building better artificial intelligence for Tempo, which, Tempo AI CEO Raj Singh envisions, will learn to anticipate your every move, no matter who you are.
“There’s many kinds of calendar users. You have to appeal to the barista as well as the enterprise sales executive. And when we designed Tempo, we designed it in mind for both,” Singh said. “The key thing is we’re super excited, there’s a lot of discussion about what comes after Siri.”
This also means utilizing the hardware to help with planning, like monitoring your device’s accelerometer to know that you are on a plane.
“If get a better understanding of how you travel throughout the day, that may also help improve how we think about flights for you or how we think about recommendations,” Singh said.
Tempo created a bit of buzz when it launched in February because its creators didn’t realize how popular the app would be. A virtual line of users formed to get a chance to try the smart calendar. Since then, Tempo AI has met demand and is now focused on expanding its reach globally and making the app smarter. The company said it’s processed about 1 billion emails and documents through the app’s scheduled meetings features.
The company’s first round of funding, from Relay Ventures and Sierra Ventures, also comes with new board members, including Norman Winarsky, the co-founder of Siri. Tempo AI’s board will now also include Relay Venture’s Kevin Talbot, who has worked with calendar technology companies before, and Sierra Venture’s Ben Yu, who has experience in enterprise applications, a space that interests Tempo AI, according to Singh.
