Cake, a New York-based AI startup, announced it has raised $13 million in funding, including a $10 million seed round led by Google’s Gradient Ventures, alongside participation from Primary Venture Partners, Alumni Ventures, Friends & Family Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Firestreak Ventures. Founded in 2022 by Misha Herscu (CEO) and Skyler Thomas (CTO), the company aims to simplify enterprise AI adoption by integrating and securing over 100 open-source components into a unified infrastructure.

Herscu, who previously founded McCoy Medical Technologies and served at Primary Venture Partners, described Cake’s mission as addressing a “big picture problem” of making open-source AI tools enterprise-ready. He said, “There are countless components in the AI stack, but integrating them reliably and efficiently remains a major bottleneck for businesses.”

Cake provides managed AI infrastructure, allowing enterprises to bypass the complexity of building systems in-house. The platform supports diverse use cases, from financial data analysis to medical imaging and e-commerce recommendations.

Thomas, who formerly held roles at IBM and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, compared Cake’s approach to Red Hat’s model of making Linux enterprise-ready. “We aim to make open-source AI tools secure and scalable for business environments,” he explained.

Cake is already working with clients such as Altis Labs and Ping, focusing on scenarios that exceed the capabilities of off-the-shelf solutions. The funds will be used to expand Cake’s team and further develop its platform, with plans to introduce a hosted version in the future.

Featured image: Credit: Cake