Israeli AI startup AUI secures $20 million SAFE round at $750 million valuation cap
The company says its hybrid symbolic–generative model can manage structured, task-based conversations where ChatGPT-style systems falter.
Augmented Intelligence (AUI), founded in 2017 by Ohad Elhelo and Ori Cohen, has raised $20 million in a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity) round. The round sets a valuation cap of $750 million, with the company’s final valuation to new investors to be determined in the next funding round.
Full list of Israeli high-tech funding rounds in 2025
The round was joined by existing investors eGateway Ventures and a group of investors from the Israeli fund New Era Capital. This brings total funding in AUI to approximately $60 million, following a $10 million round about a year ago that was raised at a $350 million cap.
AUI, which employs 45 people across offices in Tel Aviv and New York, is developing an artificial intelligence platform that merges two distinct approaches: generative AI, which interprets and formulates user messages, and a symbolic reasoning component designed to make decisions and handle logical operations.
Co-founder Ohad Elhelo explained that the company’s hybrid approach enables it to manage task-oriented conversations, such as booking a hotel stay or opening a bank account, an area that remains largely unsolved for conventional large language models (LLMs), which excel in open-ended dialogue but struggle with structured, transactional interactions.
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Elhelo added that AUI’s symbolic model is already in use by several Fortune 500 companies, and that the key advantage of its technology lies in cost efficiency: it eliminates the need to train large, expensive models, resulting in significantly lower operational costs.
He also revealed that AUI is pursuing a strategic go-to-market partnership with Google, aimed at serving consumer companies, retailers, and the broader e-commerce sector by deploying conversational agents in the cloud.
Elhelo said AUI’s vision is to create “one big model” capable of serving multiple clients at scale, as opposed to the industry’s prevailing approach of building bespoke solutions for each customer. The new round will allow the company to expand its New York presence and prepare for its next commercial growth phase.
