Sakana AI
A deep look at Sakana AI's finances, team, and market position in the Foundation Models space.
Awaira Score
Out of 100
HQ
Japan
Founded
2023
Raised
$479M
Stage
Series B
Team
100-500
About Sakana AI
Sakana AI develops foundation models using nature-inspired evolutionary and collective intelligence approaches to AI model development, exploring alternatives to the dominant model of scaling single large models toward architectures that combine multiple smaller models or that use evolutionary algorithms to discover model configurations. The Tokyo company was founded by David Ha, former Research…
Key Facts
- Sakana AI is valued at $2.65B as of March 2026.
- Sakana AI has raised a total of $479M in disclosed funding across 1 funding rounds.
- Sakana AI was founded in 2023 by David Ha and is headquartered in Japan.
- Sakana AI employs approximately 100-500 people.
- Sakana AI operates in the Foundation Models category and is currently at the Series B stage.
- Sakana AI has an Awaira Score of 65/100, ranking it among the tracked AI companies on Awaira.
- Sakana AI's most recent funding round was a Series A of $200M closed in September 2024, led by New Enterprise Associates.
Source: Awaira · Updated Mar 24, 2026
Valuation
$2.65B
Post-money
Total Raised
$479M
All rounds
Awaira Score
65/100
Founded
2023
100-500 employees
Strengths & Risks
Strengths
Unicorn status with $2.65B valuation
Strong Awaira Score of 65/100
Large team of 100-500+ employees
Considerations
Very early stage — limited track record
Analysis based on publicly available data. Not investment advice.
Awaira estimate based on public data. Not financial advice.
How does Sakana AI stack up against competitors?
Competitor Comparison
| Metric | ★Sakana AI | OpenAI | Anthropic | DeepSeek |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awaira Score | 65/100 | 98/100 | 95/100 | 92/100 |
| Total Raised | $479M | $127B | $67B | $1.1B |
| Valuation | $2.65B | $852B | $380B | N/A |
| Stage | Series B | Private | Series G | Corporate |
| Founded | 2023 | 2015 | 2021 | 2023 |
| Employees | 100-500 | 4,000 | 3,000 | 150 |
| Country | 🇯🇵 | 🇺🇸 | 🇺🇸 | 🇨🇳 |
Investors in Sakana AI
Funding Rounds
QuietLed by New Enterprise Associates
$200M
Sep 2024
Sakana AI Latest News
Wisteria Investment Backs Japanese AI Startup Sakana AI
Sakana AI Announces Strategic Partnerships to Scale AI Operations
Sakana AI Raises $200 Million to Build Nature-Inspired AI Models in Japan
Sakana AI Releases New Open-Weight Language Model Challenging GPT-4
Open Positions at Sakana AI
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