Grammarly acquires productivity start-up Coda

18 Dec 2024

Coda’s CEO and co-founder, Shishir Mehrotra, is also set to become the new CEO of Grammarly.

Online spelling and grammar assistant Grammarly has acquired productivity tools start-up Coda for an undisclosed sum.

As a result of the deal, Grammarly will acquire Coda’s AI tools and products, Coda Docs and Coda Brain, and integrate them into its current suite of tools. Founded in 2009, Grammarly currently has 40m active users and is valued at $13bn, while Coda was valued at $1.4bn following its Series D raise back in 2021.

It is envisioned by Grammarly that with the addition of Coda’s tools, the two companies will combine into an AI productivity platform.

It was also announced yesterday (17 December) that Grammarly’s CEO, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, would be stepping down from his position. Coda’s CEO and co-founder, Shishir Mehrotra, will be succeeding him as CEO.

Welcoming the announcement that Mehrotra would be succeeding him as CEO, Roy-Chowdhury said: “I’ve known Shishir since our Google days together many years ago and deeply respect him as a leader and technologist.

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed learning from our talented employees and look forward to working alongside Shishir as an adviser.”

Mehrotra added that he’s “honoured” to take on the new position. He also detailed the company’s plans to weave the capabilities of Coda and Grammarly together: “It will combine your company knowledge, generative AI chat features, a full productivity suite, and hundreds of agents to help you work smarter. We aim to redefine productivity for the AI era,” he said.

The prospects offered by AI has turned it into a focus point for both businesses and governments alike, and Ireland is no exception.

Last month, the Government published a “refreshed” AI strategy last month, which, according to the Government, consider several developments in AI technology and regulation since the original strategy, titled ‘AI – Here for Good’, was published in 2021. These developments include the launch of ChatGPT in late 2022 and the implementation of the EU AI Act over the summer.

And last week, the Innovation Index Pulse Survey found that the majority of Irish businesses engaged in research and innovation have either adopted or plan to integrate a clear AI strategy within the next year.

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Ciarán Mather is a senior journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com