By Shubhangi Chowdhury
Cluely, an AI-powered task assistant, has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz, the company announced June 20 in a video posted on X. This comes two months after it raised $5.3 million in a seed funding co-led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.
Originally launched as a tool that helped users cheat during job interviews, Cluely stirred controversy early on. But now, the startup has positions itself as an “invisible” AI assistant —quietly monitoring users’ screens and offering real-time help without drawing attention.
Following rebranding, the company has removed the mention of “cheating” from their site and removed references to cheating on job interviews from its website. Thereby, giving a brief of being an undetectable AI tool. Yet their bold tagline, “Cheat on Everything,” has grabbed attention among hiring sectors and the education arena. However, founders Roy Lee and Neel Shanmugam cleared the air by stating that Cluely is a desktop assistant that redefines how people interact with AI. This tool would democratize the high-quality support and task completion through the help of AI.
Horowitz’s blog post further elaborated that they see Cluely as a real opportunity to pioneer a new category of proactive, multimodal AI assistants. This lightweight tool has quickly become important in high-stakes professional settings. Popularized among consumers through viral campaigns and systematic user-generated content. “The strength of this initial traction underscores the clear demand for innovative, real-time productivity tools,” said Horowitz. Lee’s multiple posts created brand awareness, thereby making it profitable investment.
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Now, Lee is all ready to double down the on viral marketing with freshly raised capital in hand. His goal is to reach one billion views across all platforms, he told BI. “We’ll do pretty much whatever it takes to do that,” Lee said. For the launch of Cluely, Lee had uploaded a video on X platform where a satirical video of him trying (and failing) to use this AI tool on a first date.
In addition, this capital is going to help in scaling their team involving the hiring of the group of interns.
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Cluely has managed to gain attention among the competitive professional sectors for its assistance in analyzing live audio and on-screen context to provide proactive insights. “Cluely combines instantaneous responsiveness with deep contextual understanding, effectively positioning it across the consumer and enterprise markets.”
This San Francisco–based startup made waves on social media and hit the headlines earlier this year for the first time when 21-year-old Columbia University student Roy Lee was suspended for developing its prototype. Previously known as “Interview Coder,” the tool sparked controversy for helping users cheat on exams and job interviews.
Cluely’s other cofounder is 21-year-old Neel Shanmugam, a former Columbia student like Roy Lee. Now serving as the company’s COO, he’s also dropped out of the university.
Cluely started out as a tool designed to help developers’ game their way through LeetCode —the popular coding challenge platform. Many in the software engineering world including Cluely’s own founders, saw LeetCode as outdated and a poor measure of real-world skills.