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We may not havean agreed - upon definition of AI “ agent”yet , but a throng of startups want to make “ agentic ” putz to automate various tasks online . One such business firm , web browser Use , has attracted a long ton of pastime from developers and investors thanks to its solution that makes site more “ readable ” for AI federal agent .
browser app Use severalise TechCrunch that it has raised a goodly $ 17 million ejaculate backing circle lead by Felicis ’ Astasia Myers with participation from Paul Graham , A Capital , and Nexus Venture Partners . The society ’s funding has n’t previously been report .
internet browser Use , part of Y Combinator ’s 2025 winter batch , has gained ill fame in recent months . Formosan startup Butterfly Effect ’s use of web browser Use in its viral Manus tooldrove cognizance to new peak .
Magnus Müller and Gregor Žunič ground browser app Use last twelvemonth through ETH Zurich ’s Student Project House accelerator pedal . Müller had been work on web - scraping cock for twelvemonth and suffer Zunic in 2024 while the pair were getting their schoolmaster ’s degree in data science . Together , according to Müller , they came up with the idea of combining web scraping with data science to prompt a web web browser to perform a task .
Müller and Žunič built a browser app Use demo in five weeks — and it took off . after , they spread out sourced it .
browser app Use essentially breaks down the button and element of a website into a more digestible , “ text - like ” format for agents . This helps the agents understand the different alternative and make decisions autonomously .
“ A lot of agent bank on vision - based scheme and try and navigate websites through screenshots , and in [ the ] process , thing erupt , ” Müller said . “ We exchange [ site ] into something agent can understand . This glide path means we can draw the same tasks again and again at a cheaper toll . ”
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There ’s an increase figure of AI company that want to make their agents interact with internet site more graciously , and Müller think browser app Use can become a “ fundamental layer ” dish this need . He added that more than 20 companies in the current Y Combinator winter slew used internet browser Use for their own requirement .
“ There are companies coming to us and saying , ‘ What can we do to make it easier for agents to navigate our internet site ? ’ ” Müller said . “ There are situation — for example , LinkedIn — that modify the way the website work all the time , so agents often fail on sites like those . ”
According to Myers , Felicis has been actively looking at the AI broker space for the past several years , and browser app Use find like the right opportunity to grow the firm ’s portfolio there . She said that the company ’s founding team — and its unresolved - source - first glide slope — seal the deal .
“ We guess internet AI agents are the next frontier that really helps with the end - to - conclusion automation of human task , ” Myers told TechCrunch . “ [ W]eb AI agent are this dynamical bridge circuit between static pre - condition model that are mostly text - focussed in the ever - changing digital landscape painting . ”
