Microsoft is hiring a team for Cove, the AI-powered collaboration platform powered by Sequoia

The team behind Cove, a Sequoia-backed startup that has been working on an AI-powered collaboration board, has joined forces with Microsoft, according to an email sent to customers informing them of the discontinuation of its Cove service.

Cove was founded in late 2023 by Stephen Chow, Andy Zibalski, and Mike Chow, all of whom worked on Google Maps features like Street View. The startup raised $6 million in a seed round from Sequoia Capital, Elad Gil, Homebrew, Adverb, Scott Belsky, and Lenny Rachitsky in 2024.

Its tool was an infinite whiteboard where AI could create different blocks for tasks like planning trips. The founders felt that the AI’s chat interface was not editable, and that the canvas offered more flexibility when going in different directions with prompts.

Cove also allowed users to access the built-in browser, PDF files, and images to give more context to its AI, which can create new cards, tables, and lists.

The startup competed with the likes of Miro, TLDraw, and Kosmik.

The entire Cove team will join Microsoft, the product will be shut down on April 1, and all user data will be deleted, the company said in an email to customers. Cove said it has refunded all subscriptions for March and is offering a data export process.

“When we started Cove, we set out to reimagine how people collaborate with AI. As the model’s capabilities accelerate, our conviction in this mission has become stronger. We are thrilled to continue this work at Microsoft AI, where we will have the opportunity to pursue a greater vision,” the company said in a blog post on its site.

In addition, the company said that “the ideas behind it [Cove] “It will continue” within Microsoft. Notably, Microsoft added Copilot to its collaboration product Whiteboard in 2023.

TechCrunch reached out to Microsoft to understand how it plans to integrate Cove’s technology into its ecosystem, but did not immediately receive a response.