The former Yahoo CEO, Marissa Mayer, refuses to sit on the sidelines of the generative AI revolution.
After spending the last six years running Sunshine, a photo-sharing and contact-management startup with little success, the storied tech leader has shuttered the company to launch Dazzle, a new startup focused on building the next generation of AI personal assistants.
While Mayer is not yet sharing specifics about Dazzle’s functionality, she has revealed that the new company has raised an $8 million seed round at a $35 million valuation. The round was led by Forerunner’s Kirsten Green, with participation from Kleiner Perkins, Greycroft, Offline Ventures, Slow Ventures, and Bling Capital. Although Mayer has admitted to investing her own capital in the startup, she emphasized that the round was led by Green, a venture capitalist with a storied record of identifying iconic consumer brands such as Warby Parker, Chime, and Dollar Shave Club.
Green’s investment suggests Dazzle is poised for the coming wave of new AI-infused consumer businesses. The founder of Forerunner Ventures previously told TechCrunch that while enterprise AI took the early lead in this tech cycle, consumer-facing AI is a “late bloomer” that’s finally ready for its breakout.
Even for a founder of Mayer’s fame, landing Green as a lead investor is a significant stamp of credibility for Dazzle, especially after Sunshine was widely considered to be a flop. “I think she really has a great sense for where people and platforms are going,” Mayer said.
Mayer told TechCrunch that the Sunshine team began prototyping Dazzle last summer, a project that quickly eclipsed their previous work in ambition and opportunity. “We realized that this was something that we were much more excited about,” she said, noting that Dazzle has potential for “a much bigger impact” than what Sunshine was building.
Originally founded as Lumi Labs in 2018, Sunshine first launched with a subscription app for contact management dubbed “Sunshine Contacts.” Despite its founder’s high profile, the product struggled to gain traction. Privacy advocates raised alarms over the app’s practice of pulling home addresses from public databases to enrich contact lists, and the company never recovered from the initial skepticism. By 2024, the company broadened its offering by adding event management and “Shine,” an AI-powered photo-sharing tool. The new offering was widely criticized for its outdated design and similarly failed to attract widespread usage.
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Sunshine raised a total of $20 million from investors, including Felicis, Norwest Venture Partners, and Unusual Ventures. When the company was dissolved, investors received 10% of Dazzle’s equity, Mayer said.
Reflecting on Sunshine’s struggle, Mayer was candid about its limitations, admitting the problems the company was tackling were too “mundane” and not large enough. “I don’t think we got it to the state of overall polish and accessibility that I really wanted it to be,” she added.
Mayer is now betting that the lessons from Sunshine will help her build a much more resilient and impactful business with Dazzle.
Before her tenure as Yahoo CEO, Mayer was employee number 20 at Google, where she helped design Google search ‘look and feel’, and oversaw the development of Google Maps and AdWords.
“I have had the rare privilege of being at two companies that really changed how people do things,” Mayer told TechCrunch. “Yahoo, for many, defined the internet. Google, in terms of Search and Maps, changed everything. I really aspire to build a product that has that kind of impact again.”
Dazzle is expected to come out of stealth mode early next year.
