Shapes Emerges With $8M to Blend AI Into Group Chats

The social platform Shapes is stepping out of stealth mode with $8 million in seed funding, introducing a vision where artificial intelligence functions as a participant in human group conversations. The startup, which has already amassed 400,000 monthly active users, aims to mirror the familiar group chat dynamics found on platforms like Discord, but with AI agents integrated directly alongside human members.

Co-founded in 2022 by Anushk Mittal and Noorie Dhingra, the company reports that its user base has grown sixfold since the beginning of the year. With thousands of users now spending between two and four hours daily on the platform, the founders are positioning the app as a tool to combat “AI psychosis”—a phenomenon where isolated, one-on-one interactions with chatbots can lead to paranoia or delusions.

Redefining AI Interaction

The core philosophy behind the application is that human life is structured around group communication. By introducing AI characters—referred to as “Shapes”—into these existing social loops, the platform seeks to move away from the private, siloed nature of traditional chatbot apps.

“Today, all of our conversations with AI are very private and one-on-one, but that’s not really how humans collaborate and communicate with each other,” Mittal explained. “Our lives run on group chats. That’s where we spend all of our time.”

Key operational features of the platform include:

• Dynamic Participation: Unlike other AI models that wait for a prompt, Shapes have a degree of autonomy and can initiate messages to keep conversations active.
• Community Focus: Users have already generated three million custom Shapes, many of which serve as catalysts for fandom-based discussions.
• Transparency: While the AI characters function similarly to human users, they are clearly labeled to ensure users maintain a distinction between human and synthetic participants.
• Engagement Tools: The platform helps solve the “first message” problem in stagnant group chats, as the AI can act as a facilitator to keep momentum going.

Strategic Growth and Funding

While tools like ChatGPT allow for group-based AI interaction, Mittal emphasizes that those are typically utility-focused, such as for brainstorming or planning. In contrast, Shapes is built for social interaction and community building. The company plans to utilize its new capital, led by Lightspeed with participation from AI Capital Partners, AI Grant, and various angel investors, to accelerate product development and user acquisition.

Mittal describes the platform as a next-generation chat experience rather than a traditional AI tool. The primary demographic consists of highly active online users who utilize these AI-facilitated environments to dive deeper into their specific interests and hobbies.