In a year defined by breakneck AI funding and ethical uncertainty, Cluely—a viral San Francisco startup that built its brand on helping users “cheat at everything”—has raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
The fresh capital, announced Friday by cofounder and CEO Chungin “Roy” Lee, marks a bold endorsement of a product that toes the line between AI innovation and outright manipulation.
Cluely’s technology offers “undetectable” real-time AI assistance by seeing a user’s screen and feeding them contextual answers. Originally designed to help software engineers game job interviews, the tool has since expanded and sanitized its branding after Lee was suspended by Columbia University over its earliest version, known as “Interview Coder.”
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Though references to cheating have been removed from Cluely’s website, the company has retained its provocative core identity—and now, a wave of high-profile investors.
“We backed Roy early because he brings a rare mix of vision and fearlessness,” said Bryan Kim, a general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. “He’s a founder with the boldness to rethink what’s possible.”
Profitable and Viral—Despite Controversy
Lee claims that Cluely is already profitable, generating “millions of dollars in revenue” since its launch earlier this year. The company’s valuation has reportedly soared to around $120 million following this latest funding round. Previous investors Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures also participated in the raise, adding to a $5.3 million seed round earlier this year.
The startup is now preparing for a massive marketing push. Lee told Business Insider that his goal is to rack up 1 billion views across platforms.
“We’ll do pretty much whatever it takes to do that,” he said. To achieve it, Cluely is hiring 50 “growth interns” who will be required to post at least four TikToks a day.
In typical viral fashion, the company debuted with a tongue-in-cheek video showing Lee using Cluely to impress a date—an attempt that was both humorous and unsuccessful. But this shock-based marketing strategy is proving effective in a market where attention often trumps traditional credibility.
Performance Under Scrutiny
Despite its growing user base and strong early revenue, Cluely’s product has drawn skepticism from users and analysts. Several testers have noted significant flaws in its performance: laggy responses, hallucinated facts, and answers that don’t quite fit natural conversation.
Some reviewers describe Slick as a little creepy, and not quite ready for your next meeting.
But as it stands, investors appear more interested in potential than perfection—especially if a product taps into a viral niche and gains traction among younger, tech-savvy users.
Part of a Broader Niche-AI Boom
Cluely is only the latest example of a broader trend reshaping the AI startup landscape. As major players like OpenAI, Meta, and Google dominate foundation model development, nimble startups are capturing investor attention by focusing on highly specialized use cases:
- Hippocratic AI raised $65 million to develop AI agents tailored for healthcare support staff like nurses and insurance processors.
- Synthesia, which focuses on AI-generated corporate training videos, has raised more than $100 million.
- Rasa, a company building AI customer service infrastructure, recently secured $30 million.
- Harvey, an AI tool for legal professionals built on GPT-4, has attracted investment from Sequoia Capital and the OpenAI Startup Fund.
Many of these companies, including Cluely, are capitalizing on a sentiment spreading in venture capital: that the next great AI wave will come not from general-purpose models, but from tools solving narrow, practical problems—or, in Cluely’s case, pushing controversial boundaries with a Gen-Z edge.
The AI frenzy isn’t without backlash. Cluely’s initial pitch—helping people cheat on interviews—prompted an uproar in academic circles and even led to Lee’s temporary suspension from Columbia University. The startup has since rebranded its use cases, but the lingering questions about ethics haven’t gone away.
In that climate, startups like Cluely are thriving. Their formula? A niche product, a loud message, and just enough momentum to grab a16z’s attention.
What’s Next for Cluely?
With the new funds, Cluely is expected to double down on improving its product and aggressively expanding its user base. There’s also speculation that the company may pursue enterprise clients, such as onboarding tools or test preparation services, though Lee hasn’t confirmed such plans.
Time will tell whether Cluely evolves into a serious business platform or remains a flashy, meme-driven tool. However, one thing is certain: in 2025, AI startups that strike a cultural nerve—however controversially—are getting the capital they need to take off. For now, investors seem more than willing to bet that cheating the system might just be the next billion-dollar idea.