Neeva, a privacy-focused search company founded by former Google executive Sridhar Ramaswamy, has announced that it will be shutting down its consumer search engine and instead focusing on exploring use cases for artificial intelligence.
Reasons for Shutdown
In a blog post on the company’s website, Ramaswamy and Vivek Raghunathan, another Neeva co-founder, wrote that acquiring users had been challenging. They stated that this difficulty, coupled with the different economic climate, made it evident that a business in consumer search is not viable. The executives said that this was a difficult decision that was made considering various factors, including business progress so far, funding environment, and ability to grow in the vastly changed search environment.
Future Plans
Neeva will now explore use cases for generative AI and large language models in search. The company will shut down Neeva.com and its consumer search product over the next few weeks. Neeva users with a paid subscription to Neeva Premium will receive a refund for the unused portion, and the company will delete all user data as part of the shutdown. Ramaswamy and Raghunathan have promised to share more about the future of Neeva in the coming weeks.
Sridhar Ramaswamy’s Background
Ramaswamy built Neeva in 2019 after leaving his role as senior vice president of Google’s ad business a year earlier. He cited disillusionment with the company’s relentless focus on maintaining growth at the expense of users as his reason for leaving.
Neeva’s decision to shut down its consumer search engine is a difficult but necessary one. The company will now focus on exploring use cases for artificial intelligence, which is a growing field with enormous potential. While it is uncertain what the future holds for Neeva, Ramaswamy and Raghunathan have promised to share more information in the coming weeks.
Leave a Reply