A16z-backed Codi launches AI agent office manager

Codi, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup founded by Christelle Rohaut and Dave Schuman, is launching what it calls the first AI-powered platform that fully automates office management.

Codi was founded in 2018, in a pre-pandemic world, with the mission to help companies find flexible office spaces. It was more of a marketplace, as TechCrunch previously reported, that matched companies with buildings that offered flexible office arrangements. Codi then assisted with the onboarding processes.

Rouhat, the company’s CEO, says that at the time she and her team manually managed office spaces and suppliers for their clients, but recent developments in AI have allowed them to essentially automate themselves.

“With Codi’s previous model, you had to get the space at Codi. Whatever office you rent, you can now use it to automate your office logistics,” she said of her new AI SaaS product.

The startup released its beta version of the new AI office management product in May and officially launched it on Tuesday. The company last raised and has raised a $16 million Series A in 2022, led by a16z $23 million so far.

The technology comes at a time when the return to the office is becoming more widespread in corporate America. “Office management remains very manual and flawed,” Rouhat, the company’s CEO, told TechCrunch. She added that it can cost companies at least $80,000 a year in administrative costs alone to run an office.

The role of an office manager has also changed over the years. In this post-pandemic world, where companies are increasingly moving to remote and hybrid working, the formal role of office manager often remains unfilled. When companies have an office manager, they often spend more time planning events than on the logistics of the office, she said.

Rouhat said she and the team trained the Codi AI on all the expertise and data they have collected over the years. The suppliers a company uses are placed in the AI ​​system, after which the AI ​​coordinates office needs, such as stocking the pantry and cleaning. The company said it took just five weeks to reach $100,000 in ARR after releasing the beta version.

“This new platform is estimated to save hundreds of hours per year in administrative tasks,” she said. Codi charges a monthly management fee, like a subscription, which is “a fraction of the cost of an office manager or part-time office manager or even a fractional EA,” Rohat continued.

Rouhat said that “a large portion” of their customers, whose office spaces they managed, are switching to using the AI ​​platform. Just in beta, the new Codi product has already signed 40 new companies, such as TaskRabbit and Northbeam, Rouhat said.

Rouhat sees Codi’s competitors as traditional management companies and workplace experience platforms such as Envoy. She said that unlike older management companies, Codi replaces the need for staff members to assess, hire and coordinate each supplier because execution is autonomous and the platform integrates a curated network of service providers, Rohaut said.

Additionally, compared to workplace platforms, Codi helps coordinate the handling of physical actions in the office, she continued.

“Codi is building the future where offices can drive themselves, just like cars can drive themselves,” she continued. “We want to completely remove the logistical burden of managing physical spaces and free up human talent to focus on workplace culture and growth.”