Poly Emerges from Stealth with $8M in Seed Funding to Build an Intelligent File Browser for the AI Era

Poly unveils an AI-powered file browser that makes every document, image, audio, and video searchable, understandable, and generative

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 19, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Intelligent cloud file browser company Poly today announced $8 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from Bloomberg Beta, NextView, Figma Ventures, AI Grant, Wing Ventures, and MVP Ventures. After two years in stealth, the company is introducing a reimagined file system built for the next generation of work.

In an era where people are storing and generating more files than ever, Poly layers intelligence directly inside the file browsing application, which syncs local files to the cloud. Files continue to live on a user’s computer while Poly adds an AI-powered interface that can instantly search, summarize, tag, and organize content across formats. Users can ask the Poly agent about their documents, images, videos, and audio and receive accurate, context-aware answers from anywhere in their file system. The agent can then take actions on their files to generate new content, such as summaries, transcripts, tabulations, podcasts, and presentations.

This seed funding will support product development, AI infrastructure, and early team expansion as Poly launches its desktop application and opens its waitlist to the public.

“Poly was built on the belief that in an AI-first world, the file system itself has to evolve,” said Abhay Agarwal, founder and CEO of Poly. “We created a browser that replaces Finder or File Explorer with an intelligent interface that can help search, understand, and create across terabytes of information. It's like having an LLM with infinite context from your life.”

Poly’s unique ingredient is a proprietary embedding model, Polyembed-v1, which understands a vast array of content types, including text, PDFs, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, audio, video, code, and URLs. This allows the agent to deliver deeper insights with precise citations including timecodes and page numbers. Poly reports that its embedding model outperforms similar ones not only for document retrieval, but also for broad search queries and multimodal requests involving text and media.

“What Abhay’s team has created is a new ‘tool for thought’ that is native to AI,” said James Cham, Partner at Bloomberg Beta. “They’re not just technical virtuosos, they’re also distilling that complexity into something universal and human. We all desperately need the file browser to come back.”

Early beta users have used Poly to simplify research, organize creative assets, and uncover insights hidden in archives. From support teams searching thousands of pages of internal documentation to researchers analyzing complex archives and creators generating new visuals from reference folders, Poly is helping people work across formats in smarter, more generative ways.

“Poly is redefining how people connect with their own information,” said David Beisel, Partner at NextView Ventures. “Instead of burying knowledge in folders, Poly surfaces context and creativity—turning everyday files into a personal intelligence layer that helps people work and think faster.”

With its launch, Poly reimagines how intelligence lives inside the tools people already use every day. Poly is now expanding early access and will begin onboarding new users from its waitlist on November 19. Poly’s desktop application is available for macOS, with a Windows version coming soon. Interested users can join at https://poly.app.

About Poly

Poly is the intelligent cloud file browser for the generative age. Built to help users store, browse, search, and share files smarter, Poly uses AI to tag, summarize, and organize information, as well as generate new content from it. Founded by CEO Abhay Agarwal, Poly is led by a multidisciplinary team including Samuel Lo, Head of Design, and Alexandre Seo, Head of Engineering. Poly has raised $8 million in seed funding led by Felicis, with participation from Bloomberg Beta, NextView, Figma Ventures, AI Grant, Wing Ventures, and MVP Ventures. Learn more or join the waitlist at https://poly.app.

Press Contact Mollie Gonzalez mollie@bulleitgroup.com