Tana, a startup that has been operating in stealth mode, has emerged with a bold mission to transform the way people and teams manage their to-do lists and collaborate. The company has secured $25 million in funding from a notable list of investors, including Tola Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Northzone, among others. This significant investment will enable Tana to further develop its innovative AI-powered platform, which aims to simplify task management and boost productivity.

At its core, Tana is an automated list builder, note taker, and organizer that can listen to conversations, transcribe them, and turn them into actionable items. The app's "Supertag" feature, inspired by object-oriented programming, can transform unstructured information into structured data in a matter of seconds. This technology, combined with its knowledge graph, enables Tana to create a seamless and efficient workflow for its users.

Tana's founders, including CEO Tarjei Vassbotn, CPO Grim Iversen, and COO Olav Kriken, bring a wealth of experience from their time at Google, Dropbox, and other prominent tech companies. Iversen, in particular, was a senior member of the team that built Google Wave, another effort to solve the to-do list and collaboration conundrum. This expertise has allowed Tana to develop a platform that is both user-friendly and powerful.

The startup has already gained significant traction, with 160,000 users on its waitlist, including a heavy concentration of large enterprises. Its closed beta, launched nine months ago, has attracted 30,000 users, and its Tana Slack community has amassed 24,000 members. This early success is a testament to the app's potential to revolutionize the way people work.

Tana's founders are well-connected and have raised $25 million in two tranches. The Series A round of $14 million was led by Tola Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Northzone, Alliance VC, and firstminute capital. The seed round of $11 million had backing from La Famiglia (now part of General Catalyst), Lars Rasmussen, co-founder of Dropbox, and other notable investors.

The company's vision is to create a knowledge graph that will improve over time, as it takes on more data and its team builds future iterations of the platform. "We are building out a knowledge graph," said CEO Tarjei Vassbotn in an interview. "Tana is a river of information." This ambitious goal is supported by the company's decision to partner with OpenAI, Anthropic, and Grok to power its natural language processing capabilities.

Tana's founders are not naive to the challenges they face. Many talented builders have tried to conquer the efficiency and productivity conundrum in business software, yet all of them have not quite worked as hoped. However, the company's careful application of AI and its founders' experience in building productivity tools give them a unique advantage.

As Tana continues to develop and refine its platform, it will inevitably face competition from existing leaders in the note-taking and productivity spaces, such as Notion. However, investors are convinced that Tana's vision and commitment to driving the experience make it a worthwhile bet. "I meet a lot of productivity companies and have been in the space," said Sheila Gulati, founder and managing director of Tola Capital. "But this is a miraculous experience. I use it to run our VC firm. This is a market that will have real competition and players who want to win, but this team has a high level of commitment to drive the experience."

As Tana emerges from stealth mode, it is clear that the company is poised to make a significant impact on the productivity and collaboration landscape. With its innovative AI-powered platform, experienced founders, and significant funding, Tana is well-positioned to revolutionize the way people and teams work.