# Exa

> AI-native web search API built for developers and AI agents, not traditional search portals.

## Why it is interesting

Exa (formerly Metaphor) raised $250M led by a16z at a $2.2B valuation (May 2026) to scale neural web search — hiring veterans from Meta and Yandex search teams to compete with Google for AI retrieval workloads.

## Profile

- **Stage:** growth
- **Status:** private
- **Industries:** ai-ml, infra-cloud
- **Coverage:** full
- **Last updated:** 2026-07-24

## Key facts

- Series C (May 2026): $250M led by a16z (/fund/andreessen-horowitz) at $2.2B; Benchmark (/fund/benchmark) and Lightspeed (/fund/lightspeed-venture-partners-nyc) participated (Exa blog)
- Formerly Metaphor; product is a neural web search API for AI agents and developers
- YC participated per Exa blog; not in VCT fund directory

## Investors in our directory

- https://venturecapitaltracker.com/fund/andreessen-horowitz
- https://venturecapitaltracker.com/fund/benchmark
- https://venturecapitaltracker.com/fund/lightspeed-venture-partners-nyc

## Related articles

- https://venturecapitaltracker.com/2026-exa-labs-250m-series-c-ai-search-2-2b

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Source: https://venturecapitaltracker.com/startup/exa