Ex-Yandex Search Chief's Startup Keenable Raises $26M to Build AI-Native Web Search Index Rivaling Google and Microsoft
Summary
Ex-Yandex search chief Andrey Styskin's startup Keenable emerges from stealth with $26M in seed funding to build an AI-native web search index of over 100 billion documents, directly challenging Google and Microsoft's grip on search infrastructure for AI agents.
Key Points
- Keenable, a startup co-founded by former Yandex search chief Andrey Styskin, emerges from stealth with $26 million in seed funding led by Accel to build a web search index of over 100 billion documents specifically designed for AI agents
- The startup's API is already in production use at several AI labs and inference providers, and a new product called WebQueryLanguage is in development to help AI systems synthesize answers from multiple web sources
- With Google and Microsoft restricting their search APIs to prevent cannibalization, Keenable sees a major opportunity to offer cost-efficient, AI-native web search infrastructure and plans to double its 15-person engineering team by year-end