One of the most common uses for new AI models is powering natural language search to find files and information more quickly. Many companies now offer services that connect different platforms to search through data. A startup called Poly is launching a new service that encourages users to consolidate all their files into one place so they can query them to find the right content. At launch, Poly is offering 100GB of storage on its free tier.
This marks Poly’s second product iteration. The company was founded in 2022 by Abhay Agarwal and Sam Young, who has since left. Initially, the startup, which was part of the Y Combinator accelerator, allowed users to create 3D assets using AI prompts. Agarwal, a Microsoft research fellow who worked on vision AI for the visually impaired, said the team did not anticipate the rapid growth and funding of the AI image generation sector. This led them to pivot.
The team interviewed users to identify workflow pain points solvable by AI. They discovered a major unmet need was organizing personal file systems, as users often struggle to find their files. In response, Poly shut down its previous service in 2023, entered stealth mode, and began building a new cloud-based file organizer.
After several months in a closed beta, the product is now launching publicly. It is currently available on web and Mac, with a Windows version coming soon. The company will begin onboarding users from its waitlist starting today.
Poly has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from Bloomberg Beta, NextView, Figma Ventures, AI Grant, and Wing Ventures. This total includes a prior $3.9 million round raised in 2022.
A partner from Bloomberg Beta commented that file systems are powerful but often forgotten, and Poly is repositioning them as a central point of interaction, using AI to help users think more clearly.
Poly functions as a cloud storage tool with AI-powered search. It supports text, PDF, office documents, images, audio, video, and web files. Users can upload files, tag them, ask the AI assistant questions, and request summaries or translations. The tool can also organize files by creating new folders or renaming them as needed.
The founder views Poly as an upgrade to tools like Google’s NotebookLM, which lets users gather files into a project to ask questions and generate insights. However, Poly currently lacks access to the latest web knowledge and cannot create audio or video. Future updates plan to add web search, stylized report creation, a text and markdown editor, custom metadata, Google Docs link integration, and AI agents for spreadsheet analysis.
Poly allows users to create shared drives, add files, and invite others to ask questions about the content, which is useful for collaborative projects. The startup also plans to add direct sharing for individual files and folders.
Poly will compete with services like Dropbox and Google Drive, which have their own search tools. In one user’s experience, Poly’s search function outperformed Google’s. An additional benefit is the ability to paste a YouTube link and generate a summary of the video.
While many AI search offerings exist, a significant advantage for Poly is its 100GB free storage tier, which is larger than most competitors. A paid plan offers 1TB for $10 per month. Although direct photo sync is not currently available, future development could position Poly as an alternative to Google Photos.
Despite the substantial storage, the founder noted that early testers primarily used Poly as working storage for active projects. The service targets AI-native creators and knowledge workers, such as researchers or service executives analyzing customer calls.
Poly currently offers a Model Context Protocol server for use within tools like ChatGPT or Cursor. While it lacks direct sync integrations with other services, the founder believes its support for virtual file references will allow it to import files from various platforms.