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Ex-Google Engineer Launches Continua, Raises $8M to Bring AI Agents into Group Chats
August 12, 2025
In early 2023, David Petrou — a distinguished engineer and founding member of both Google Goggles and Google Glass — left Google after more than 17 years to start his own company. His new venture, Continua, aims to integrate AI agents into group chats across SMS, iMessage, and Discord to make collaboration smoother and more efficient.
“The simple way to think about it is that we’re bringing the power of LLMs to group chats,” Petrou explained.
Continua announced it has raised an $8 million seed round led by GV, with participation from Bessemer Venture Partners and several angel investors.
Petrou’s idea emerged from observing how people often interact with AI tools like ChatGPT, then copy and paste responses into their group conversations. Continua instead embeds an AI agent directly into the chat, allowing it to set reminders, create polls, schedule events, generate Google Docs, and provide relevant information without overwhelming the conversation.
The system can be invoked when needed or told to “hang back” if it’s responding too often. Users can add Continua by including its phone number in a group SMS or its username in a Discord chat.
Building an AI that works naturally in group settings proved challenging. Most large language models are optimized for one-on-one interactions, so Continua had to fine-tune them to grasp the social dynamics of multi-person discussions. “You want the agent to have social intelligence,” Petrou noted.
GV general partner Erik Nordlander, who invested in Petrou before Continua’s concept had fully formed, described him as “a brilliant engineer, someone who’s been working with AI since before it was the hot thing.”
Continua is already assisting with event planning and trip booking, services that could become part of its revenue model in the future.
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