Former Google Engineer Launches Continua with $8M Seed for Social AI
Former Google Distinguished Engineer David Petrou has unveiled Continua, a pioneering venture poised to redefine group communication through “Social AI.” The new company, which announced its launch on August 12, 2025, has successfully secured $8 million in seed funding, signaling strong investor confidence in its innovative vision. The funding round was spearheaded by GV (formerly Google Ventures), with significant participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and a roster of influential angel investors, including AI luminary Jeff Dean and Quora CEO Adam D’Angelo.
Continua’s core mission is to elevate the group chat experience by integrating artificial intelligence as a genuine, active participant in dynamic conversations. Unlike traditional AI tools often designed for one-on-one interactions, Continua’s Social AI agent is engineered to understand and navigate the complexities of multi-person discussions, transforming real-time chatter into organized, actionable outcomes. This intelligent agent seamlessly joins group chats on popular platforms like SMS, iMessage, and Discord, requiring users simply to add its phone number or username.
The functionalities of Continua’s AI are designed to streamline collaborative efforts and everyday planning. It can automatically set reminders for shared tasks, launch polls to facilitate group decisions, generate calendar invitations for events, and even create Google Docs complete with checklists and to-do lists based on conversation flow. Users also have the flexibility to message the AI privately for quick recaps of forgotten details, such as meeting times or locations.
David Petrou, the founder and CEO of Continua, brings a wealth of experience from his 17-year tenure at Google, where he served as a Distinguished Software Engineer and was a founding member of groundbreaking projects like Google Goggles and Google Glass. His journey from exploring computer vision and visual search led him to recognize a significant untapped opportunity: to harness the power of large language models (LLMs) not just for what users can see, but for the intricate ideas and information shared within human minds. Petrou noted that the inspiration for Continua struck when he observed people manually copying answers from chatbots like ChatGPT into their group conversations, highlighting a clear need for integrated AI.
Adapting LLMs for the nuanced dynamics of group chats presented a considerable technical challenge, requiring the AI to develop “social intelligence.” Petrou explained that the goal was to enable the agent to respond naturally without overwhelming the conversation, learning when to interject and when to remain silent. Users retain control, with the ability to instruct the AI to “hang back” if its participation becomes too intrusive.
This strategic entry into the consumer group chat market positions Continua to address an underserved segment of AI development, as many existing solutions primarily target business applications. Investors like GV’s Erik Nordlander expressed immense confidence in Petrou’s engineering prowess, backing him early in the venture’s conceptualization. While other companies, including Meta and Hey Umai, offer competing conversational AI tools, Petrou believes Continua’s unique optimization for group interactions sets it apart. The company is also exploring potential revenue streams, particularly through its capabilities in event planning and trip booking services.
Continua’s launch marks a significant step towards a more integrated and intelligent future for digital communication, promising to transform chaotic group discussions into productive and cohesive interactions.