Medal Raises $13M for Desktop AI Assistant

Medal, known for its video game clipping product, raised $13 million at a $333 million valuation from investors like Horizons Ventures, OMERS Ventures, Peak6, and Arcadia Investment Partners for its contextual Desktop AI assistant

The company also revealed a new cross-platform desktop application called Highlight, which serves as a user’s contextual AI helper. With the app’s help, which records what’s on your screen, you can ask Large Language Model (LLM) queries depending on context.

During a call with TechCrunch, Henry Gladwyn, a partner with OMERS Ventures, it was stated that the venture capital firm saw a chance to apply Medal’s core technology to LLMs.

Therefore, comprehending what is happening on a user’s device—including the video, audio, and surrounding elements—is the foundation of Medal technology. Clipping was the initial purpose of that. According to Gladwyn, it’s an intelligent use of the technology that the corporation is now using to prompt LLMs.

Gladwyn continued, saying that Medal wasn’t only a game firm and a product for capturing the finest moments of virtual life. Furthermore, that paradigm’s logical extension is the Highlight app.

How does the Highlight function?

Businesses have worked for years to create a helpful user assistant that uses information displayed on screens. With Google Now, Google Assistant, and now Gemini, Google has been attempting for years.

During its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last month, Apple introduced Apple Intelligence, which can comprehend contextual information displayed on screens, as a first step into this field.

With Windows Recall, a tool that assists users in finding information they have previously browsed, Microsoft is also utilizing generative AI. However, following its first announcement, Microsoft chose to delay the release of Recall.

Highlight is working to enable this functionality for desktop users. The application resides as a floating button on your desktop in its current version. Hovering over the icon causes it to capture the content on the screen and send it along to various models as context.

To ask further questions, you can use additional tools like ChatGPT, Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity, and others.

To assist you in getting started, the software pre-populates some of the questions based on several models. The program doesn’t store any content; the capture is done locally.

The business is developing a ChatGPT-like assistant, which may not be as proficient as cloud-based models in some situations but may eventually operate locally on your smartphone.

You can send a document and system audio memory as context to Highlight in addition to on-screen content. The startup is developing a local meeting transcribing software that works with the audio use case; it will resemble apps like Granola, Limitless, and Krisp.

Structure Highlight

During a call with TechCrunch, Medal’s co-founder, Pim de Witte, it was revealed that the firm had begun considering integrating AI with Medal.tv’s clip capture technology last year.

We are aware that recording operations will be crucial for operating systems. And we’ve seen some significant tech corporations take similar actions. According to de Witte, we aim to offer an open platform that allows users to interact with models, assistants, and interfaces.

In addition, he stated that he aimed to create an AI application that people of all ages could utilize—regardless of their familiarity with technology. Because of this, the app will use the capture to display contextual prompt recommendations.

Additionally, the business is creating an open platform so programmers may use it to run their apps on the Highlight platform. This is comparable in several ways to the Mac version of the Raycast launcher software, which enables developer-made extensions.

One significant distinction is that Highlight works with Mac and Windows operating systems.

Gladwyn of OMERS Ventures stated that Highlights has an edge since it is independent and wants to avoid pulling you into a single ecosystem.

The way forward

Due to Medal.tv’s success, the firm plans to keep it updated and add additional features. However, the business will designate certain employees to work on Highlight.

Although Highlights is now free, de Witte intends to use the app store model to monetize it. The business is also investigating the possibility of offering access to some of its apps and features, such as local-first models, through a premium membership.

To build the app ecosystem, the business is also giving developers grants of up to $30,000. These developers will also have access to the Highlight team.