Anthropic acquires Vercept, an AI startup from Seattle's A12 incubator, to expand Claude Code capabilities. Vy, Vercept’s primary product, is being discont
Acquisition Overview
Anthropic has announced its acquisition of Vercept, a Seattle-based AI startup known for developing complex agentic tools. This move comes on the heels of Anthropic’s recent acquisition of coding agent engine Bun in December to support Claude Code.
History and Team Background
Vercept was established through Seattle's A12 incubator, which was formed from the Allen Institute for AI. The co-founders of Vercept—Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs, and Ross Girshick—have strong ties to the tech community, with backgrounds in research at the Allen Institute.
Product Line and Market Position
Vercept's primary product, Vy, was a cloud-based agent designed to operate a remote Apple MacBook. The startup had received significant backing, including investments from notable figures such as Eric Schmidt, Jeff Dean, Kyle Vogt, and Arash Ferdowsi. Vercept announced that it would be shutting down its product on March 25 as part of the acquisition.
Key Figures' Reactions
Oren Etzioni, a co-founder and investor in Vercept, was not included in the acquisition team. He expressed his disappointment over the outcome, stating that the startup is "throwing in the towel" and giving customers a 30-day grace period to transition off the platform.
Financial Implications and Future Directions
While financial details of the deal were not disclosed, Vercept's co-founder Kiana Ehsani highlighted that the company had raised $50 million. Anthropic is integrating key team members from Vercept into its operations, aiming to accelerate their vision for AI agents in personal computing.
Stakeholder Perspectives
In contrast to Etzioni’s disappointment, those joining Anthropic appeared optimistic about the future. Kiana Ehsani emphasized that joining forces would "accelerate that vision into reality," indicating a clear alignment of goals and strategies between the two organizations.
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