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Powerset (company)

Powerset (company)

A company that created an internet search engine. It was started in 2005 and acquired by Microsoft in 2008.

OverviewStructured DataIssuesContributors

Contents

powerset.com
Is a
Company
Company
Organization
Organization

Company attributes

Industry
Natural language processing (NLP)
Natural language processing (NLP)
Internet
Internet
Technology
Technology
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Location
San Francisco
San Francisco
B2X
B2C
B2C
Founder
Lorenzo Thione
Lorenzo Thione
Barney Pell (entrepreneur)
Barney Pell (entrepreneur)
AngelList URL
angel.co/powerset
Parent Organization
Microsoft
Microsoft
Number of Employees (Ranges)
51 – 2000
Investors
Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman
Foundation Capital
Foundation Capital
Amidzad Partners
Amidzad Partners
Bezos Expeditions
Bezos Expeditions
CommerceNet
CommerceNet
Valley Venture Capital
Valley Venture Capital
0
Founders Fund
Founders Fund
Scott Banister
Scott Banister
...
Founded Date
January 1, 2005
Total Funding Amount (USD)
14,500,000
Latest Funding Round Date
June 1, 2007
Glassdoor ID
100566
Acquisition Transaction
‌
Acquisition of Powerset by Microsoft
Latest Funding Type
Series A
Series A
Wellfound ID
powerset
Country
United States
United States
Headquarters
San Francisco
San Francisco

Other attributes

Company Operating Status
Active
Funding Round Investor
Peter Thiel
Peter Thiel
Owner
Microsoft
Microsoft
Wikidata ID
Q224599

Powerset was a California-based company with technology to conduct searches on the internet using natural language processing (NLP). The technology was able to consider the semantic meaning behind keyword searches, not just the keywords themselves. It was focused on the structure of language so that users would get more relevant search results when using the product.

Product

Powerset was used to search articles using NLP on Wikipedia. Upon entering the keywords or question in the search engine box, users would be presented with relevant images, tags, and summaries.They could click on an article, which they would then view along with a side box containing "factz". The "factz" were brief facts that were related to the topic and users were also able to click on those in order to be taken to an article that was related to the previous one.

Funding and Acquisition

The company had two funding rounds, raising a total of $20.5 million. In 2008, Microsoft acquired Powerset for a reported $100 million. The technology was then integrated into Bing, Microsoft's own search engine.

Timeline

No Timeline data yet.

Funding Rounds

Products

Acquisitions

SBIR/STTR Awards

Patents

Further Resources

Title
Author
Link
Type
Date

Bing finds meaning in Powerset

Cade Metz

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/07/01/powerset_and_bing/

Web

July 1, 2009

Powerset shows semantic search solution

Paul Miller

https://www.zdnet.com/article/powerset-shows-semantic-search-solution/

Web

May 12, 2008

References

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