en.Wedoany.com Reported - AI startup Sea12, founded by 21-year-old New Zealander Thomas Morson and his co-founder Charles Englander, focuses on providing back-office automation platforms for steel, construction, and logistics companies. To date, it has raised a total of $25 million (approximately NZ$43 million) in funding.
Morson grew up in Coromandel, completed high school in northeastern France, and later studied at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL). The school, modeled after Stanford in Silicon Valley, fostered an entrepreneurial atmosphere that attracted him. Subsequently, through a mutual friend, Morson met Englander, who was studying at Yale University, and the two interned at the same startup. They then operated in a "mercenary" model, developing custom AI applications for multiple companies, but found this approach lacked recurring revenue, leading them to decide to create their own AI platform.
Sea12 was founded in May 2024, primarily addressing document processing issues for logistics and construction companies, such as back-office automation, including handling steel order documents, planning parts manufacturing, and reconciling invoices. Morson dropped out of university to meet Englander in New York and start the business. "We were completely self-reliant, with only $30,000, renting a small office and hiring five interns," Morson said. A year after the company's founding, it completed a seed round of approximately $4 million, primarily from Caffeinated Capital. Morson recalled that the seed round process was very fast: Caffeinated's general partner, Varun Gupta, called Englander on a Friday, chatted for an hour or two, called Morson on Saturday for about 45 minutes, and sent a term sheet on Monday. Subsequently, a Series A round brought total funding to $25 million. SV Angel, Haystack, Also Capital, and other institutions also participated in the investment.
After securing seed funding, Sea12 began hiring full-time employees and targeting large clients, including Basden Steel, headquartered in Texas. Basden Steel's business involves steel structure framework projects for building military bases, airports, hospitals, and more. Sea12 automated its back-office operations, including processing steel order documents, planning parts workshop manufacturing, and invoice reconciliation. Through a recommendation from Basden Steel, Brown Strauss Steel in Colorado also became a client.
Sea12 currently has "seven-figure revenue" and multiple major clients. The company primarily uses AI models from the Anthropic camp, as well as OpenAI's Codex. A customer manager from OpenAI also provided a $15,000 credit line to maintain the partnership. The company now has an office on Broadway, employs 14 people, and plans to hire four more. Morson stated that the company operates with a full in-office work model to maintain corporate culture. In terms of hiring, he believes that top engineers change jobs every few months, and it is difficult to retain them without offering substantial compensation or fostering a strong culture. The company is currently "barely breaking even, with expenses slightly exceeding revenue," aiming to achieve eight-figure revenue by year-end and planning to consider a Series B round only after reaching annual revenue of over $15 million.
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