Vals, backed by a16z, raises $40M to sell confidential task-based AI benchmarks
dl_weekly · x · 2026-09-28
Vals, a startup founded in 2024 that sells confidential, task-based AI benchmarks, has raised a $40 million Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz, with revenue growing eightfold year over year and headcount expanding from eight to twenty-five.
- The company aims to fix a broken benchmarking ecosystem where vendors optimize for legacy leaderboards, turning good scores into PR.
- Its seed round was led by 8VC and Bloomberg Beta; co-founder Rayan Krishnan, 25, previously interned at Scale AI.
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