Sol, a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup, has emerged from stealth with $4 million in funding from General Catalyst, Nexus Venture Partners, DeVC, Peercheque, and Kunal Shah. The company has developed a proactive AI assistant that identifies commitments made in Gmail and automatically begins completing the associated work, including research, document creation, presentations, scheduling, and drafting email responses. Unlike conventional AI assistants that wait for instructions, Sol recognizes what users have already promised to do and initiates the necessary tasks, while requiring approval before completing final actions.
Founded by Anish Karan, Prateek Srivastava, and Ranjith Nair, Sol is targeting founders, executives, and professionals working in sales, marketing, consulting, recruiting, and agencies. Its technology addresses the administrative burden of managing commitments across email conversations, documents, calendars, and other business applications.
The platform analyzes Gmail conversations to identify commitments such as sending a proposal, preparing a presentation, reviewing documents, scheduling a meeting, or following up with a colleague. Once a commitment is identified, Sol gathers the necessary context and begins preparing the work without requiring the user to create a separate task or write an AI prompt.
For example, when a user promises to send a presentation for an upcoming leadership meeting, Sol can recognize the commitment, gather relevant information, and build the presentation for review. If a user agrees to provide documents needed to advance a business transaction, the platform can locate previous agreements, gather supporting information, and prepare the requested materials.
The assistant can also coordinate meetings by reviewing calendar availability and identifying suitable time slots. Users can then approve the proposed meeting time before the appointment is scheduled.
To execute these workflows, Sol operates within its own computer environment, uses a browser, and draws on a library of more than 100 specialized skills. These capabilities allow the system to complete multistep assignments involving research, document preparation, presentations, and meeting coordination across different applications.
A central component of the platform is its human approval process. Although Sol can proactively identify commitments and prepare the work required to fulfill them, users retain control over the final outcome. Documents, presentations, emails, and meeting arrangements can be reviewed or edited before anything is sent, scheduled, or shared.
The company is positioning its technology as an alternative to conventional AI assistants that require users to repeatedly formulate prompts and manually initiate workflows. By identifying tasks directly from email conversations, Sol aims to reduce the administrative work associated with tracking commitments and coordinating activities across multiple business applications.
The funding brings together institutional investors and individual backers supporting the company’s approach to proactive AI. General Catalyst’s investment reflects its interest in AI applications that can independently execute business workflows, while Nexus Venture Partners is supporting the company’s efforts to simplify how professionals interact with AI.
Sol is initially available through selective access and a waitlist, with the company planning to expand general availability in the future. The launch marks its initial introduction to the market as it develops additional capabilities for automating the work associated with professional commitments.
KEY QUOTES:
“People whose work runs through email often have to repeat themselves: first in email, then again when they ask an AI tool to act. There’s no good reason for that. If I’ve already said I’ll do something, there should be an AI that gets started on it.
We shouldn’t have to become experts in AI to benefit from it. AI should learn how to use the right tools and skills behind the scenes, so people can focus on the work they’re uniquely good at while Sol does the heavy lifting and gives them a simple way to approve or edit the work.”
Anish Karan, CEO of Sol
“When we first met Anish, Prateek and Ranjith, we were blown away by the impact they had made together. Anish is a second-time founder and one of the sharpest product minds we’ve worked with, turning referrals into a top growth channel for eighteen months in a market where they rarely work.
Sol’s problem is simple and deeply felt: if you’ve said you’ll do something, AI should already be doing it. Their consumer obsession and design philosophy stood out to us, and that’s exactly what this moment needs.”
Akarsh Shrivastava, Partner at General Catalyst
“What got us excited about Sol is that Anish and team are building AI that just knows when to act and proactively does the right things. There is no learning curve, it’s AI that just works.”
Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Partner at Nexus Venture Partners
