a16z-backed Codi launches AI agent office manager

rising, An Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup Founded by Christelle Rohaut and Dave Schuman, it is launching as the first AI-powered platform to fully automate office management.

Codi was founded in 2018, in a pre-pandemic world, with the mission of helping companies find flexible office space. It was a marketplace, as TechCrunch previously reported, that matches companies with buildings that offer flexible office arrangements. Cody then assisted with the move-in process.

Company CEO Rohaut said that he and his team used to manually manage office space and vendors for their clients back then, but recent advances in AI have allowed them to largely automate themselves.

“The previous model of Kodi, you had to get space with Kodi. Now, no matter what office you lease, you can use it to automate your office logistics,” he said of his new AI SaaS product.

The startup released the beta version of its new AI office management product in May and officially launched it on Tuesday. The company last raised a $16 million Series A in 2022 led by A16z and $23 million so far.

The technology comes as it returns to offices across corporate America. “Office management is very manual and broken,” said the company’s CEO Rohaut, TechCrunch. He added that it can cost companies at least $80,000 a year in administrative costs to run an office.

The role of the office manager has also changed over the years. In this post-pandemic world, formal office manager jobs often remain unfilled as companies move toward remote and hybrid work. When companies have an office manager, they often spend more time planning events than office logistics, he said.

Rohaut said he and the team have trained Cody AI on all the skills and data they’ve collected over the past few years. A company uses AI to put vendors into the system, and then AI coordinates office needs such as pantry restocking and cleaning. The company says it took just five weeks to reach $100,000 in ARR after it released its beta.

“This new platform is estimated to save hundreds of hours a year in admin tasks,” he said. Kodi charges a management fee each month, like a subscription, which is “a fraction or even a fraction of the cost of an office manager or part-time office manager EA,” Rohout continued.

Rohaut said a “good portion” of their clients, from whom they used to manage office space, are transitioning to using AI platforms. In beta alone, the new Kodi product has already signed up 40 new companies like TaskRabbit and NorthBeam, Rohout said.

Rohaut sees Codi’s competitors as legacy management companies and workplace experience platforms, such as Envoy. Unlike legacy management companies, Kodi replaces the need for staff members to review, hire and coordinate with each vendor because execution is autonomous and the platform integrates a curated network of service providers, Rohaut said.

Also, compared to workplace platforms, Kodi helps coordinate physical activity management in an office, he continued.

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

This section has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Rohautof name