Codi powered by a16z launches an AI-powered proxy office manager

Codi, a startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz and founded by Christel Rohaut and Dave Shuman, is launching what it hails as the first AI-powered platform to fully automate office management.

Codi was founded in 2018, in a pre-pandemic world, with the goal of helping companies find flexible office space. It was more of a marketplace, as TechCrunch previously reported, matching companies with buildings that offered flexible office arrangements. Then Codi helped with the transitions.

Rohaut, the company’s CEO, said that at the time she and her team were manually managing office space and vendors for their clients, but recent advances in artificial intelligence have allowed them to essentially automate themselves.

“In the previous model of Codi, you had to acquire the space with Codi,” she said of her new AI SaaS product. “Now, whatever office you rent, you can use it to automate the logistics of your office.”

The startup released its 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. $23 million so far.

The technology comes as the return to the office continues across corporate America. “Office management is still very manual and broken,” Rohaut, the company’s CEO, told TechCrunch. She added that it can cost businesses at least $80,000 a year just in administrative costs to run an office.

The role of the office manager has also changed over the years. In the post-pandemic world, as companies move toward remote and hybrid work, the formal position of office manager is often left vacant. When companies have an office manager, they often spend more time planning events rather than office logistics, she said.

Rohaut said she and her team trained Codi AI on all the experience and data they’ve collected over the past few years. The vendors the company uses are put into the AI ​​system, and the AI ​​then coordinates office needs such as restocking supplies and cleaning. The company said it only took five weeks to reach $100,000 in ARR after the beta was released.

“This new platform is expected to save hundreds of hours per year on administrative tasks,” she said. Codi takes a monthly management fee, such as a subscription, which is “a fraction of the cost of an office manager or a part-time office manager or even a fraction of an EA,” Rohaut continued.

Rohaut said a “significant portion” of their clients, from whom they have managed office spaces, are moving to using the AI ​​platform. In beta alone, the new Codi product has already signed up with 40 new companies, such as TaskRabbit and Northbeam, Rohaut said.

Rohaut sees Codi’s competitors as legacy management companies and workplace experience platforms, such as Envoy. Unlike legacy management companies, Codi replaces the need for staff to review, assign and coordinate with each vendor because implementation is independent and the platform integrates a coordinated network of providers, Rohaut said.

She also continued that, compared to workplace platforms, Codi helps coordinate handling of physical operations in the office.

“Codi is building a future where offices can run themselves, just as cars can drive themselves,” she continued. “We want to completely remove the logistical burden of managing physical spaces and free up human talent to focus on workplace culture and growth.”

This piece has been updated to reflect the correct spelling of Rohaut‘s name.