[Digital Today reporter Chi-gyu Hwang] Privacy-focused AI startup WebAI raised its valuation to $2.5 billion through an extended Series A round, SiliconANGLE reported on Jan. 13 (local time).

The funding included joint participation from Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures and Atreides Management, and existing investor Forerunner Ventures also joined.

WebAI provides a platform that allows companies to build “sovereign AI” models on local infrastructure rather than in the cloud. This lets companies run AI on their own devices without sending data to cloud servers. The company said this can significantly improve security and response speed.

WebAI also said its platform supports cost reductions for AI by using local computing. Last year, WebAI launched an enterprise AI assistant app called Companion. The Companion app runs directly on devices and supports enterprise users in working with data.

WebAI said it has secured customers across industries including retail, logistics and aviation. Finnish healthcare company Oura Health also joined as a key customer. WebAI CEO David Stout said, “We will enable AI to run directly where data is generated, without the cloud or Wi-Fi,” adding, “With this investment, we plan to accelerate distributed AI innovation.”