Extend, a fast-growing AI-native document processing startup founded by Kushal Byatnal and Eli Badgio, has announced a $17 million round combining seed and Series A funding. The round was led by Innovation Endeavors, with backing from Y Combinator, Character VC, Homebrew, and angel investors including Scott Belsky (Adobe), Guillermo Rauch (Vercel), and Jeff Weinstein (Stripe).

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Automating the Final Frontier of Unstructured Data

Roughly 80% of business-critical data is still trapped in unstructured formats - PDFs, scanned invoices, handwritten forms, and regulatory filings. Extend’s mission is to transform these documents into clean, structured, production-grade data, unlocking value across industries from fintech and healthcare to logistics and insurance.

The platform uses advanced large language models (LLMs) and vision-language pipelines to achieve over 95% accuracy. Their cloud handles everything from schema generation and prompt engineering to real-time human-in-the-loop review.

Companies like Brex, Checkr, Square, Flatiron Health, and Fortune 500 enterprises already rely on Extend to process millions of documents - all with minimal engineering lift.

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Launching in Days, Not Months

Traditionally, deploying a robust document automation system took months of manual setup, data annotation, and fragile OCR configurations. Extend radically simplifies this. Teams can launch document pipelines in just days, thanks to pre-built schema automation, automated prompt generation, and intuitive sandbox environments.

With Extend, companies quickly convert complex and high-stakes documents - including identity checks, tax forms, and compliance records - into instantly usable data.

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The Hidden Lever: Owning the Workflow, Not Just the Model

While many AI startups focus on creating the most powerful models, Extend has taken a different approach that founders should pay close attention to. Extend realized early that the real bottleneck isn't just "better AI" - it's the messy, chaotic reality of enterprise workflows.

Instead of simply offering a generic model as an API, Extend built a full-stack orchestration layer that integrates deeply into customers' business processes. This means they provide the tools for schema management, validation UX, feedback loops, and even operator controls - turning AI output into business-ready action.

Here’s the big founder insight hidden here: True defensibility comes from owning the workflow. When your solution becomes an essential layer inside an organization's day-to-day operations, you move from being a vendor to becoming irreplaceable infrastructure.

This approach creates three superpowers:

1. High switching costs - replacing you means rebuilding a core process from scratch.
   
2. Continuous data flywheel - more usage feeds more improvement, making you even stronger over time.
   
3. Deep user trust and visibility - because you're embedded in the daily flow, you learn real user pain points faster than any standalone AI tool.
   

For founders, the takeaway is clear: prioritize building systems that orchestrate and integrate rather than just focusing on the tech layer alone. The closer you get to your customers' actual workflows, the more deeply you entrench your value and outpace would-be competitors.

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Funding and Future Plans

Extend’s $17 million raise was led by Innovation Endeavors, with support from YC, Homebrew, and Character VC. High-profile angels like Scott Belsky and Guillermo Rauch signal strong industry belief in Extend’s vision.

The company was already generating multi-million dollar annual recurring revenue (ARR) and was cash-flow positive before this round - a rare combination in today’s AI market.

With this new capital, Extend plans to:

• Expand its engineering team to deepen orchestration capabilities and build automated pipeline optimizers.
  
• Scale its go-to-market function to serve larger enterprise deals.
  
• Invest in next-generation LLM orchestration layers, confidence scoring, and vertical-specific automation modules.
  

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The Document Cloud Vision

Today, we store documents in the cloud, but the documents themselves remain opaque, unstructured, and inert. Extend wants to change this by creating the world’s first true Document Cloud - a fully intelligent layer where documents are not only stored but fully understood and actionable.

This cloud-native platform aims to become the backbone of document intelligence across industries, setting the new standard for how enterprises handle forms, agreements, and compliance artifacts at scale.

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Final Takeaway

Extend’s $17 million raise is more than a funding milestone - it’s validation that future enterprise AI won’t just be about models but about deep orchestration and integration into core business processes.

For founders, the lesson is powerful: build products that don’t just "plug in" but become foundational. When you own the workflow, you don’t just win customers - you become essential.