What Crossing Minds does

Crossing Minds was a San Francisco-based AI startup founded in 2017 that built a privacy-first recommendation platform for e-commerce merchants. Its core technology analyzed on-site user actions in real time using machine learning to deliver personalized product recommendations without relying on personal user data, addressing merchant demand for personalization amid tightening privacy regulation and consumer sensitivity. The company served enterprise customers including Chanel and Anthropic, and distributed its platform primarily through a deep integration into Shopify's merchant tools following a 2022 strategic investment from Shopify.

Beyond its recommendation engine, Crossing Minds offered AI application development infrastructure, including embedding tools and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) capabilities, positioning the company in the broader LLM tooling stack. The company employed an enterprise field sales motion targeting large retailers and brands, with subscription-based platform licensing as its revenue model. Total funding raised across an 2017 seed, a 2021 Series A led by Radical Ventures, and incremental strategic investments from Shopify and Comcast NBCUniversal LIFT Labs exceeded $13 million.

In June 2025, OpenAI completed a talent acquisition of Crossing Minds, with the entire team joining OpenAI and co-founder Alexandre Robicquet moving into a researcher role focused on AI agents and post-training. Co-founded by Alexandre Robicquet, Sebastian Thrun, and Emile Contal, the company had ceased taking new clients prior to the acquisition, ending its independent operating life after approximately eight years.

Name

Crossing Minds

Legal name

Crossing Minds

Website

https://crossingminds.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2016

Operating status

Acquired

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Crossing Minds was a San Francisco-based AI startup that built a privacy-first recommendation platform for e-commerce merchants, analyzing on-site behavior without personal data. It served enterprise clients including Chanel and Anthropic, and its team was acquired by OpenAI in June 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

AI-Powered Personalization and Recommendation Software

NAICS

Gift, Novelty, and Souvenir Retailers (45942)

SIC

Retail-Computer & Computer Software Stores (5734)

akta.pro primary industry

E-commerce & Retail Recommendation Engines (HDAAAGAA)

Keywords

• AI recommendation engine
• Personalization platform
• E-commerce recommendations
• RAG tools
• Embeddings platform

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Platform Licensing/SaaS: Crossing Minds provided its recommendation platform as a service to merchants, integrated into Shopify's merchant tools. The platform was designed to help merchants increase sales and engagement through personalized recommendations.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

Crossing Minds built an AI-powered personalization and recommendation platform for online retailers that analyzes on-site user actions in real time to deliver personalized product recommendations without relying on personal user data. The platform was integrated into Shopify's merchant tools, helping merchants increase sales and engagement while preserving customer privacy. The company also offered embeddings and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) tools for AI application development.

Product overview

Crossing Minds was an AI startup that offered a suite of products centered on personalized recommendations and AI application development. The core offering was the Crossing Minds Recommendation Platform, a privacy-focused personalization engine for e-commerce merchants. Additionally, the company provided AI development tools including Embedding Tools and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) capabilities. The product portfolio worked together to enable online retailers to enhance customer experiences through intelligent recommendations while also providing developers with infrastructure for building AI applications. Following the acquisition by OpenAI in June 2025, the company has stopped taking new clients.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Crossing Minds Recommendation Platform AI-powered personalization and recommendation platform for online retailers that analyzes on-site user actions in real time to deliver personalized product recommendations without relying on personal user data. Designed for e-commerce merchants seeking to enhance shopping experiences and increase sales and engagement while preserving customer privacy.
• Embedding Tools Tools for AI application development that provide embedding capabilities, enabling developers to convert text and other data into vector representations for machine learning applications.
• Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) Tools Retrieval-augmented generation tools for AI application development, combining large language models with external knowledge retrieval to improve response accuracy and relevance.

Quantifiable outcome

• Platform helps merchants increase sales and engagement

Named customers2 records

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability4 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered flagship and core.

• OpenAIflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 June 2025OpenAI acquired Crossing Minds' team in June 2025 to enhance its personalization and recommendation capabilities. One of Crossing Minds' co-founders, Alexandre Robicquet, joined OpenAI as a researcher focusing on AI agents and post-training.
• ShopifycoreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 April 2022Shopify integrated Crossing Minds' recommendation platform into its merchant tools, enabling merchants to enhance personalized shopping experiences without using personal data.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Algolia: Provides AI-powered search and product recommendation APIs for e-commerce and digital experiences. Most directly comparable to Crossing Minds as a developer-facing recommendation/personalization API platform with a similar integration model.
• Recombee: AI-driven recommendation engine offered as an API/service to e-commerce and media companies. Closely comparable in business model, technology (real-time ML recommendations), and target customer base (online retailers and platforms).
• Nosto: Personalization platform for e-commerce merchants offering product recommendations, on-site personalization, and behavioral targeting. Directly comparable as a SaaS personalization provider for online retailers.
• Constructor.io: AI-powered search and product discovery platform for e-commerce retailers. Directly comparable in offering AI/ML-driven product recommendations and search as a service to merchants.
• Klevu: AI-powered smart search, merchandising, and product recommendations for e-commerce merchants. Directly comparable as a SaaS provider focused on personalization and discovery for online retailers.
• Clerk.io: E-commerce personalization platform offering product recommendations, search, and email personalization for online retailers. Directly comparable in customer base and product offering.

Broad incumbents

• Bloomreach: Enterprise digital experience platform combining e-commerce search, merchandising, content, and personalization. A larger incumbent that overlaps with Crossing Minds' recommendation capabilities as part of a broader commerce stack.
• Dynamic Yield (Mastercard): Personalization and recommendation engine acquired by Mastercard, serving enterprise e-commerce and digital businesses. A larger incumbent with overlapping AI personalization capabilities.
• Adobe (Adobe Target / Sensei): Adobe Target and the broader Adobe Experience Cloud provide personalization and recommendation capabilities as part of a large enterprise marketing and experience platform. A broad incumbent that competes for the same enterprise retail personalization budgets.

Emerging players

• Coveo: Enterprise AI search and recommendation platform applying RAG and LLM-era retrieval to commerce and customer experience use cases. Overlaps with Crossing Minds' RAG and information retrieval capabilities at the enterprise tier.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/Crossing_Minds

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors13 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Crossing Minds