Cluely
“Can a controversy-born AI assistant pivot fast enough to become the default real-time intelligence layer for enterprise sales calls and meetings?”
Founded2025
HQNew York, New York
FoundersRoy Lee, Neel Shanmugam, Alex Chen
Total raised$20.2M
Latest roundSeries A, June 2025
Valuation~$120M post-money (2025)
IndustryHorizontal SaaS / AI Assistant
The story
Founded in April 2025 by Columbia University students suspended for building an AI interview-cheating tool, Cluely launched with a deliberately provocative 'cheat on everything' marketing campaign. After raising $20M+ from top VCs including a16z, the company pivoted to reframe itself as a legitimate real-time AI meeting and sales call assistant, with enterprises adopting the product in a conventional B2B SaaS model. The embedded finance stack is purely operational — Stripe for billing, Brex for corporate banking and spend management — with no embedded finance products offered to end customers.
Last 12 months
2025-06
Product timeline
2025
Roy Lee and Neel Shanmugam suspended from Columbia University after building Interview Coder, a Chrome extension providing AI-generated coding answers during technical interviews.· pivot
2025
Cluely, Inc. founded on April 20, 2025 by Roy Lee, Neel Shanmugam, and Alex Chen, launching with provocative 'cheat on everything' marketing.· pivot
2025
Raised $5.3M seed round co-led by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures.· banking
2025
Raised $15M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz at ~$120M post-money valuation.· banking
2025
Pivoted from 'cheat on everything' positioning to mainstream AI meeting and sales call assistant, with enterprise customers disabling invisibility features.· pivot
The stack
1 layer disclosed in Cluely’s embedded-finance stack
Payments / PSP
Accounting gap: none