Marissa Mayer, former CEO of Yahoo, is actively entering the generative AI space.
After leading Sunshine, a photo-sharing and contact-management startup that saw limited success over six years, the renowned tech executive has closed it down. She is now introducing Dazzle, a new venture dedicated to developing advanced AI personal assistants.
Mayer has not yet disclosed details about Dazzle’s specific features. However, she announced that the company secured an $8 million seed investment, valuing it at $35 million. Kirsten Green of Forerunner spearheaded this funding round, with additional contributions from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital. While Mayer acknowledged personal investment in Dazzle, she highlighted Green’s leadership in the round, noting Green’s history of backing successful consumer brands like Warby Parker, Chime, and Dollar Shave Club.
Green’s participation indicates that Dazzle is well-positioned to capitalize on the anticipated surge of AI-powered consumer enterprises. The founder of Forerunner Ventures previously informed TechCrunch that although enterprise AI initially dominated this technological phase, consumer-oriented AI is a “late bloomer” now prepared for significant growth.
Securing Green as a lead investor provides considerable credibility for Dazzle, even for a high-profile founder like Mayer, particularly given that Sunshine was broadly perceived as unsuccessful.
Mayer stated, “I believe she possesses an excellent understanding of emerging trends in user behavior and platforms.”
Mayer informed TechCrunch that the Sunshine team initiated Dazzle’s prototyping last summer, a venture that rapidly surpassed their prior projects in both scope and potential.
She commented, “We recognized that this was a project we were far more enthusiastic about,” adding that Dazzle offers the prospect of “a significantly greater impact” compared to Sunshine’s developments.
Sunshine, initially established as Lumi Labs in 2018, debuted with “Sunshine Contacts,” a subscription application for managing contacts. Despite its prominent founder, the product failed to attract widespread adoption. Concerns were voiced by privacy advocates regarding the app’s method of extracting home addresses from public sources to enhance contact information, and the company struggled to overcome this early skepticism.
By 2024, the company expanded its services to include event management and “Shine,” an AI-driven photo-sharing utility. This updated offering faced significant criticism for its antiquated design and also failed to achieve broad user engagement.
Sunshine garnered $20 million in funding from investors such as Felicis, Norwest Venture Partners, and Unusual Ventures. Upon the company’s dissolution, its investors were granted 10% equity in Dazzle, according to Mayer.
Mayer reflected frankly on Sunshine’s difficulties, acknowledging that the issues it aimed to solve were too “ordinary” and lacked sufficient scale. She further remarked, “I don’t believe we achieved the level of polish and user-friendliness I truly envisioned.”
Mayer is now confident that the insights gained from Sunshine will enable her to establish a considerably more robust and influential business with Dazzle.
Prior to her role as Yahoo CEO, Mayer was Google’s twentieth employee, contributing to the design of Google Search’s aesthetic and supervising the creation of Google Maps and AdWords.
Mayer shared with TechCrunch, “I’ve had the unique opportunity to be part of two companies that profoundly altered human interaction. For many, Yahoo shaped the internet experience. Google, through Search and Maps, revolutionized everything. My ambition is to once again create a product with such transformative influence.”
Dazzle is anticipated to emerge from its private development phase early next year. Its website, dazzle.ai, remains password-secured, restricting public entry.