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Anyone who works at a computer for eight-plus hours a day will likely know that the amount of tools and “context switching” required to stay productive can be overwhelming. “Where did I put that file?” “How do I manage all my Bluetooth devices?” “How quickly can I switch from my to-do list, to my GitHub, to searching the web?”
None of this is rocket science, of course, but Raycast is all about making that task easier with unified, speedy access to applications, files, commands, and workflows via a keyboard-based interface. At its core, it’s all about bringing a little order to the chaos with what it calls a “shortcut to everything.” This might be creating a shortcut to launch a specific app, opening a new browser tab, creating a GitHub pull request, or sending a pre-written text message to tell your other half you’re running late.
A key part of Raycast platform is extensions, which are essentially small programs that users can access to extend Raycast’s functionality, powering integrations with third-party tools and services, and automating time-consuming tasks.
Raycast extensions.Image Credits: Raycast
Founded out of London in 2020, Raycast is the handiwork of ex-Facebook engineers Thomas Paul Mann (CEO) and Petr Nikolaev (CTO), who left their respective jobs at Meta nearly five years ago to address a pain point they regulatory encountered in their own working lives.
“We started Raycast to solve our own problem as developers,” Mann told TechCrunch. “We felt there are too many tools that we had to deal with on a day-to-day basis — they were stealing our focus, and we wanted a way to access all the information we need for our job quickly.”
While developers were initially its core focus, Raycast has evolved into more of a “prosumer” tool these past few years, meaning anyone whose life and work revolves around a computer are on the company’s radar.
“The majority of our users are developers, but we’re seeing a change — designers, product managers, journalists and anybody who’s ‘in tech’ and works at a computer eight hours a day fits into the bucket,” Mann said. “It’s just a way to make people more efficient.”
Raycast search with calendar event.Image Credits: Raycast
While Raycast has hitherto been a Mac-only affair, the company today said it’s expanding to iOS and Windows. To help with that, the company has raised $30 million in a Series B round led by European venture capital firm Atomico, with participation from a slew of notable investors including Accel, Coatue, Y Combinator (YC), Atlassian’s venture capital arm, and World Innovation Lab.
In the Spotlight
Raycast is somewhat similar to the Mac’s own built-in Spotlight search feature, and to a lesser extent, Windows Search. Comparisons can also be drawn with third-party applications such as Alfred, which has operated in the Mac launcher realm for more than a decade.
Raycast is looking to capitalize on demand for productivity tools not only by going cross-platform, but by doubling down on its recent investments in artificial intelligence (AI) as well.
The company offers a range of plans, including a free tier that offers the core features. The $8-a-month Pro tier unlocks a slew of additional tools such as cloud synchronization for those who work across multiple computers, as well as a translator, custom themes and the flagship feature: Raycast AI, which serves AI search capabilities, including quick access to simple services, such as blog post headline suggestions. Beyond that, Raycast AI also has a dedicated AI Chat function, comparable to something like ChatGPT in terms of the conversation flow.
One standout element of this feature is that users can query all the major large language models (LLMs) centrally, including OpenAI’s GPT-4, Anthropic’s Claude, Meta’s Llama and Google’s Gemini.
Raycast AIImage Credits: Raycast
Raycast claims “hundreds of thousands” of daily active users, and a community of more than 20,000 developers who build extensions on top of the product. The arrival of Raycast Pro last year represented the company’s first real attempt at monetization, though Mann declined to reveal the traction its subscription service has garnered in the 16 months since launch. He did say that it was pivotal to the company’s latest fundraise.
“We don’t share much about revenue, but that [pro plan] was something that kept us busy and basically unlocked the fundraise,” Mann said. “This has been received very well in our user base, which has seen significant growth that continues. And now we thought we should go and make Raycast available to pretty much everybody who works at a computer.”
Cross-platform
From today, Raycast is opening a waitlist to access its all-new iOS app, which already has an alpha incarnation and should be ready for prime time early next year. Work has already started on the Windows app, too, though that might take a little longer.
What’s notable about the iPhone app is that it will be completely different compared to what users are accustomed to on their Macs, for obvious reasons. People use their phones differently than their computers, for starters, but Apple also provides much deeper system access on MacOS compared to iOS, which allows developers to do much more.
“So with the iOS app, we think about it like it’s a companion,” Mann said. “The main thing that we will enable there at first will be AI, so you can basically have Raycast AI in your pocket — you can pick from all the different [LLM] models that we provide, and you can use it to ask day-to-day questions or continue your conversations from a Mac.”
On the Windows side, Microsoft also provides decent system-wide access, which will allow Raycast to serve a product that’s similar to what it offers on MacOS, though there will naturally be some differences.
“Windows itself is quite open as well, so there are a few things that we can do extra there that we might not be able to do on MacOS — we’re still figuring it out, as there are some things that don’t exist on both platforms,” Mann said. “Both apps will have unique features, given that they are different operating systems.”
A mockup screenshot of what Raycast could look like on WindowsImage Credits: Raycast
Raycast today has a headcount of 30 people, three quarters of whom are engineers. The entire team is based out of Europe and the two founders are in London.
Before now, the company had raised $17.7 million across two rounds of funding, with Accel leading both times and Coatue joining as co-lead for its $15 million Series A in 2021. Other notable investors in the Series B round, aside from the aforementioned institutional backers, include GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke; Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke; and Vercel CEO Guillermo Rauch.
“When we started, we were in a really niche audience — Mac users, and developers,” Mann said. “Then on the Mac, we expanded more toward the prosumer market. And then if you think about Windows, it’s a couple of magnitudes bigger user base, and many people use it for work. So it’s natural for us to go there. And with the funding, we can accelerate that.”
