Zoë Weil, instrumental in orchestrating a billion-dollar surge in gross merchandise volume at Etsy within a single year through enhancements to its AI ranking systems, is now channeling her expertise into a new venture. Her startup, Sequen, aims to democratize years of advanced AI research and product development, spearheaded by her and her co-founders, for a wider array of businesses within the consumer sector.
Sequen recently secured $16 million in Series A funding to further its mission. The company provides real-time personalization technology and sophisticated ranking infrastructure. While such capabilities have long been the exclusive domain of the world's largest tech giants, they have remained largely inaccessible to other significant consumer businesses due to the prohibitive demands of processing immense datasets.
For those outside the technical sphere, the intricacies of this technology might seem abstract. However, anyone who engages with popular consumer applications like TikTok, Instagram, or YouTube has directly experienced the profound influence of these very systems.
Weil, who serves as Sequen's CEO, articulates the evolution of this technology: “Modern tech isn’t really recommending content anymore. It’s bending your will in subtle ways over time to make you actually want things. And, in fact, the tech has gotten so good that a lot of people suspect platforms are eavesdropping on their conversations.”
This sophisticated influence, Weil explains, is largely attributable to what she terms the Large Event Model. Unlike Large Language Models (LLMs) that generalize text for chatbots such as ChatGPT, Large Event Models specialize in generalizing streams of events, particularly human behavior. This distinction indicates a broader range of applications for the technology, extending beyond merely refining algorithms.
Weil envisions Sequen's technology as a potential successor to the cookie—a ubiquitous tracking mechanism that personalizes web experiences but has increasingly sparked privacy concerns and led to regulatory scrutiny.
“Our large event models learn from live user actions, not just clicks and scrolls, but also hovers, conversations and stuff within a given session — not static profiles or third-party cookies,” Weil elaborates. She continues, “That’s how you personalize in real-time, even with sparse data. So yes, we do unlock TikTok’s algorithms for Fortune 500 companies that don’t have the infrastructure to do it…but I would say we’re taking it a step further.”
Businesses partnering with Sequen integrate with its RankTune platform, gaining access to the startup’s cutting-edge frontier and real-time ranking models via APIs. This integration is streamlined, as most of Sequen's clients already utilize in-house APIs for their relevance stacks, allowing for a straightforward swap with Sequen’s solutions.
A significant advantage of Sequen’s technology is its reduced invasiveness compared to traditional cookies. It operates on real-time data, meaning user identity is not required to personalize results, thereby enhancing privacy. Furthermore, the system boasts exceptional speed, making decisions in under 20 milliseconds.
Weil emphasizes this privacy-centric design: “Our large event models are able to generalize to streams of real-time events that they get. It doesn’t matter who is performing those events — they’re able to understand events and be able to make sense of them without relying on the user’s identity. So actually, the user’s identity is completely irrelevant.”
Despite its privacy-forward approach, Sequen's technology demonstrably delivers substantial commercial benefits. Weil asserts that it consistently achieves "crazy revenue lift."
Illustrative examples include a major furniture company that experienced a 7% revenue increase after adopting Sequen, a remarkable improvement given that a 0.4% lift was previously considered a success. Another client, Fetch Rewards, saw an impressive 20% boost in net revenue in less than 11 days. Sequen is also actively engaged with companies in the streaming media sector and the online travel industry.
Sequen’s pricing model is based on requests per second (RPS), structured in tiers offering capacities such as 500 RPS or 1,000 RPS, with increasing discounts applied at higher tiers. Notably, contracts with its first five customers are already in the seven-figure range.
“What we’ve seen consistently across the board is people opting for the highest tier, because as soon as they see us in one use case, they want to adopt us on their entire platform,” Weil observes, highlighting the rapid and comprehensive adoption by clients.
Weil’s professional journey began in AI research, but her passion quickly shifted to product development. Much of her career has been dedicated to assisting companies in creating ranking products that generate significant business value, a path that ultimately led her to establish Sequen.
In less than 18 months, Sequen has achieved remarkable milestones, processing approximately 10 billion monthly requests and securing business with several Fortune 500 companies. Its proprietary technology suite includes advanced large event models, sophisticated ranking models, and innovative algorithms.
Weil is joined at Sequen by a formidable team, including co-founders Ethan Benjamin, who also worked with her at Etsy, Mo Afsharr, and Alexander Thom. Raphael Louca, previously at Meta, recently assumed the role of Chief Product Officer. The New York-based team comprises fourteen individuals, drawing talent from leading organizations such as DeepMind, Meta, and Anthropic.
Sequen’s Series A funding round was co-led by White Star Capital and Threshold Ventures, with additional participation from existing investors, including Greycroft, which had previously spearheaded its seed round. To date, Sequen has successfully raised a total of $22 million.
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