Gamma, an AI presentation startup, has acquired Accel-backed design startup Lica to establish a new design research lab, with Lica’s co-founders leading the effort. Lica, founded in 2023 by Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta, originally built tools converting screenshots and recordings into presentations and videos, later focusing on branded marketing content for e-commerce companies, and had raised $4 million from investors including Accel and South Park Commons.
Kalyanaraman said the acquisition stemmed from a shared vision with Gamma CEO Grant Lee around simplifying visual communication, noting that while Lica had prioritized frontier research, Gamma had built substantial distribution reaching over 100 million users, making the combination a natural next step. Lee said the companies wanted to explore how presentations and visual communication could evolve beyond current formats, emphasizing deeper investment in interactivity and design research. Mehta said the new division would focus on personalizing AI-generated communication styles for different audiences, allowing outputs to be tailored and edited for varying contexts.
The acquisition adds to significant recent investment and consolidation in AI presentation tools, following Gamma’s own $68 million raise at a $2.1 billion valuation, funding rounds for competitors including Prezent, and OpenAI’s recent acquisition of presentation startup NextSlide.
Featured image: Credit: Lica/Gamma
