Modular raises $30 million following Modular.com upgrade
AI firm purchased the domain name from Reflex Publishing.
2021 was a record year for the artificial intelligence industry, with a 108% year-on-year increase in global funding that took AI firm funding past $66 billion. It also saw a 442% increase in AI firms with a valuation of $1 billion or more.
The interest in artificial intelligence seems to have continued into 2022, with firms such as Shield AI and Observe.ai raising 9-figure funding rounds each.
One business to take note of is Modular, which raised a $30 million seed funding round in late June 2022. It’s the firm’s first disclosed funding round following launching in January this year.
The firm is headed by former Google employees Chris Lattner and Tim Davis, who have lured talent away from top tech firms such as Google, Microsoft, and Intel. Modular’s team is building what it describes as a next-generation AI developer platform.
A couple of months ahead of disclosing its funding, Modular secured its exact-match .com, Modular.com.
Initially, the startup launched on Modular.ai. For many AI firms, a .ai domain would be perfectly suitable for the long term. The aforementioned Shield AI and Observe.ai, for example, both operate on .ai domains.
Still, Modular made an early move to secure Modular.com. The buyout occurred around April 2022 and was first spotted by DomainInvesting.com’s Elliot Silver. Modular.com was pried from the portfolio of Reflex Publishing, a firm that maintains a portfolio filled with ultra-premium domain names, counting Reflex.com, High.com, and Train.com.
Reflex is known for saying its domains aren’t for sale, but it makes exceptions when the right offer comes along. For example, Reflex Media sold clubhouse.com to the audio app Clubhouse in 2021.
For Modular, Modular.com provides the perfect digital base for the firm to grow. Dedicating early funding to a domain name may not have been easy for Modular, but it will pay for itself during the firm’s lifecycle.
