Cove, a startup backed by Sequoia Capital specializing in an AI-powered collaboration board, has confirmed that its team is joining Microsoft. This move was disclosed to customers via email, simultaneously announcing the impending shutdown of Cove's service.
Founded in late 2023 by Stephen Chau, Andy Szybalski, and Mike Chu—individuals known for their contributions to Google Maps features like Street View—Cove secured $6 million in a seed funding round in 2024. This significant investment came from notable entities and individuals including Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Homebrew, Adverb, Scott Belsky, and Lenny Rachitsky.
The core of Cove's offering was an infinite whiteboard interface, leveraging AI to generate diverse content blocks for various tasks, such as trip planning. The founders' vision stemmed from a belief that conventional chat interfaces for AI lacked editability, whereas a canvas-based approach provided superior flexibility for exploring different directions with prompts.
Furthermore, Cove enhanced its AI's contextual understanding by allowing users to integrate information from a built-in browser, PDFs, and images. This enriched input enabled the AI to generate new cards, tables, and lists more effectively.
In the competitive landscape, Cove was positioned alongside established collaboration tools such as Miro, TLDraw, and Kosmik.
In its communication to customers, the company confirmed that the entire Cove team is transitioning to Microsoft. The Cove product is scheduled to cease operations on April 1, with all user data subsequently being deleted. Customers have been informed that all subscriptions for March have been refunded, and a data export process is being made available.
In a blog post on its website, Cove articulated its journey and future: “When we started Cove, we set out to reimagine how people collaborate with AI. As model capabilities have accelerated, our conviction in that mission has only grown stronger. We’re thrilled to continue this work at Microsoft AI, where we’ll have the opportunity to pursue an even bigger vision.”
The company also conveyed that "the ideas behind it [Cove] will live on" within Microsoft. This aligns with Microsoft's prior strategic moves, such as the integration of Copilot into its own collaboration product, Whiteboard, in 2023.
TechCrunch sought comment from Microsoft to ascertain its plans for integrating Cove's technology into its ecosystem but did not receive an immediate response.
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