Octen's Seed Funding Announcement
Octen, a Singapore-based startup specializing in AI search infrastructure, has announced the successful raising of $10 million in a seed funding round. The round was led by venture capital firm Square Peg, with participation from Argor, another investment firm based in Singapore.
Company Overview
Founded by Kuan Zou, who serves as the CEO, Octen offers a real-time web search foundation specifically designed to empower AI models. Their platform supports AI agents, copilots, and chatbots by providing real-time indexing and sub-100ms latency, which is crucial for enabling these systems to process and reason with the most current information available online.
Investment Details
The seed funding, secured on April 22, 2026, aims to bolster Octen’s innovative approach to AI search capabilities. The company’s search engine is engineered to significantly enhance the speed and efficiency of search operations for AI agents. According to Octen, their search API can process over one million queries per second per customer account, making it one of the fastest solutions on the market.
Technological Advancements
Octen’s search engine operates with a median response time of 62 milliseconds, as tested against the SealQA Hard benchmark. This benchmark includes over 200 complex questions that require AI models to fetch and analyze data from the web. By breaking down searches into multiple simultaneous queries, Octen’s platform can deliver results much faster than traditional search engines tailored for human use. This technology is similar to methods used by major companies like Google, which employs a query fan-out technique to enhance its AI-driven search capabilities.
Strategic Use of Funds
While specific uses of the newly raised funds were not detailed, the investment is expected to support further development of Octen’s search infrastructure and potentially expand its capabilities beyond web searches. The company has indicated that its API could be used in other data retrieval tasks, such as generating stock performance reports for financial institutions.
Conclusion
Octen’s recent funding round marks a significant step in the development of AI-driven search technologies. With backing from prominent investors like Square Peg and Argor, the company is well-positioned to continue advancing its platform, offering enhanced capabilities for AI models to access and process the latest information efficiently.