Back in June 2024 – an eternity in the fast-moving generative AI sector – a startup founded by alumni from Microsoft, Google and Baidu. MainFunc launched its first product Genspark.an AI search engine.
Since then, the collision between generative AI, which can create new content on demand, and search, which traditionally retrieves it, has only accelerated across the industry. Google recently added Search Grounding to its Gemini AI Studio and, of course, OpenAI integrated its powerful real-time web search GPT directly into its signature chatbot product, ChatGPT.
But now MainFunc — backed by a $60 million seed round led by Singapore-based Launch Ventures and backed by global angel investors — is backing down. Launching “Distill Web” with AI modeling company Anthropic For Genspark, a tool designed to make financial reports more understandable and accessible.
The tool was launched earlier this week and turns on a number of features. Genspark’s AI search engineincluding Genspark Finance.
All in all, very simple, Distal Web gives users the ability to search 300,000 and counting public companies and generate glossy, readable, attractive financial reports — complete with color graphics and charts — on their earnings. Transforms this complex financial data into visual, simple. Formats to use for a wider audience.
Whether you want to see how Apple is doing after the launch of the new iPhone lineup, or how Google is fighting the AI wars, DistalWeb can generate reports that help these and many other companies. , which automatically highlights interesting outliers and trends. . It’s like Yahoo or Google Finance on steroids.
“We believe that in the AI era, search will become a core tool for agents,” said Eric Jing, co-founder and CEO of MainFunc, and former chief product manager of search and corporate VP at Baidu. “People won’t just come looking for a query or a list of links – they’ll come to get the job done. By combining different tools, agents can do a lot more than just search.”
With word of mouth gaining over 1 million monthly users in just four months, Genspark.ai is already establishing itself as a major player in AI-powered data access. The new update marks a broader vision of how users interact with data.
Making financial information more accessible to those outside finance
“Our target audience is not financial professionals – it’s everyday users who want to understand financial data from public companies.” Jing told VentureBeat. “Eventually, we hope to help people with private company data as well.”
DistalWeb’s flagship feature, Corporate Earnings Visual Reports, offers a new way to visualize financial information.
These AI-powered visualizations turn a company’s complex revenue streams into flow charts, highlighting revenue streams, costs and profit margins. The platform currently provides over 300,000 visual reports, with more added monthly.
To further expand access, Genspark also offers free financial data packs. These downloadable PDFs provide a visual breakdown of the income statements of over 100 major companies, enabling users to easily track revenue, expenses and profits.
Partnerships for product integration
MainFunc claims that Genspark is superior to other AI search efforts thanks to its focus on high-quality, accurate data — so it aims to avoid any scandals with Google’s AI review, for example. But provide misleading and false information.
“What sets us apart from others is that we don’t just use AI to provide tools — we build data platforms,” Jeng said. “Our approach combines AI-generated insights with traditional coding techniques to ensure the accuracy and reliability of financial data.”
As part of its focus on accuracy, MainFunc evaluated which of the leading large language models (LLMs) would be best for combing through financial data and creating accurate charts and graphs, and discovered that Anthropic’s Claude is family—so the two partnered on it. the effort
“We found that Cloud, Anthropic’s model, is particularly good at handling numbers and complex calculations compared to others like OpenAI,” Jing explained. “That’s why we partnered with them to analyze the financial data.”
To build further trust, Genspark implements strict validation measures. “A major obstacle to building trust in AI is deception. To address this, we double-check the numbers using AI and traditional formula-based techniques. It’s important that the numbers add up.” And be reliable.
Ask and you shall receive.
Distal Web offers more than just static reports through Genspark. The All-in-One Company Dashboard combines key financial metrics for over 70,000 companies, providing a comprehensive view of performance in one place.
For users seeking deeper insights, the AI-powered Financial Copilot answers customized questions, such as comparisons with competitors or identification of growth drivers.
This user-first approach reflects MainFunc’s broader mission.
“Normal consumers often don’t know what questions to ask when looking at financial data,” Jing said. “That’s why we offer pre-built, visually rich reports. Users can browse them and ask follow-up questions when needed, removing the initial hurdle of crafting questions.
More different features are coming.
Looking ahead, MainFunc plans to expand its offerings and introduce new features to Genspark Search.
Jing told VentureBeat: “We are launching a new data search agent soon. It will autonomously collect accurate data from various sources, even when users are offline, providing results in minutes. That usually takes hours or days.”
The company’s broader vision goes beyond tools to focus on transforming data access. “We believe that high-quality data is more valuable than the models themselves. Our mission is to create a platform that changes the way people access and understand data, especially for non-expert users,” says Jing. are
Credit : venturebeat.com
