Khosla Ventures and former NBA star Pau Gasol-backed Luzia lands €17.7M for its AI assistant on WhatsApp

Madrid-based Luzia, a startup that offers an AI assistant for WhatsApp, announced that it has secured $19M (approximately €17.70M) in fresh funding.

The investment came from Monashees, Khosla Ventures, Endeavor Catalyst, former basketball player Pau Gasol and A*, among other investors and partners.

Capital utilisation

This funding will help Luzia improve its AI products and expand its team. 

Luzia says, “We’re not slowing down. We plan to keep delighting our users, supporting their everyday lives with groundbreaking AI, developing new features to meet their needs, and of course, expanding our team—we expect to grow to 50 people by the end of the year.”

In the past year, Luzia had three rounds of funding. The company has 40 million users worldwide, a team of 20 individuals, and its new app was downloaded 5.5 million times in just three months. Luzia aims to become a leading phone assistant for everyone.

An AI assistant in Whatsapp

Founded in 2023 and led by Álvaro Martínez Higes, Javier Andrés, and Carlos Pérez, Luzia is an AI chatbot that understands and responds to simple voice or text commands. It helps with daily tasks, work, studies, and even chatting.

The free platform is available through WhatsApp and Telegram contacts.

Using artificial intelligence, Luzia serves as an all-purpose assistant, addressing a range of needs from answering questions to managing routine tasks and inspiring creativity. Whether it’s meal planning, email writing, language translation, learning, or casual conversation, Luzia is equipped to handle everything.

The company says, “At Luzia, we strongly believe in creating genuine and close user experiences. Therefore, we endow Luzia with a ‘personality’, seeking to make the interaction more enjoyable, warm and personal, and therefore more accessible.”

“Although Luzia responds with a ‘human’ personality, we maintain the ethics of being transparent about its artificial intelligence nature when asked directly, ensuring an honest and trustworthy use of our technology.”

In October 2023, just six months since its launch, Luzia secured $10M in funding from former basketball player Pau Gasol and Silicon Valley’s Khosla Ventures. The proceeds helped the company strengthen its technology team in Spain and foster user growth in key markets.