Anthropic has acquired Seattle-based AI startup Vercept, marking another step in its push to expand the capabilities around its Claude platform. The deal comes just months after Anthropic bought coding agent engine Bun to help scale Claude Code, signalling an aggressive play in the fast-evolving AI agent space.
Vercept had built tools designed for more complex, agentic tasks. Its flagship product, Vy, was a cloud-based computer-use agent capable of operating a remote Apple MacBook on a user’s behalf. The startup was part of a broader wave of companies reimagining the personal computer for the age of AI agents. As part of the acquisition, Anthropic will shut down Vy on March 25.
High-profile backers
Vercept emerged from A12, Seattle’s AI-focused incubator that spun out of the Allen Institute for AI. Several of its co-founders were former researchers at the institute.
The founding team included Kiana Ehsani, Luca Weihs and Ross Girshick, all of whom will join Anthropic as part of the acquisition. However, not all founders are making the move.
Matt Deitke, a co-founder who previously attracted headlines for negotiating a reported $250 million compensation package from Meta to join its Superintelligence Lab, is not joining Anthropic. Nor is Oren Etzioni, the founding leader of the Allen Institute for AI and a well-known figure in Seattle’s tech ecosystem.
In a LinkedIn post, Vercept CEO Ehsani said the company had raised a total of $50 million, including a previously announced $16 million seed round. Lead investor Seth Bannon of A12 was highlighted, alongside an impressive roster of angel backers such as former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, Google DeepMind chief scientist Jeff Dean, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt and Dropbox co-founder Arash Ferdowsi.
Public fallout between investors
While the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, Etzioni said he received a positive return. Yet he did not hide his disappointment.
“After a little bit more than a year, Vercept is throwing in the towel and giving their customers 30 days to get off the platform. Sad,” he wrote on LinkedIn, adding that a fantastic team was joining Anthropic.
The situation escalated when Etzioni criticised Bannon, suggesting the investor was partly responsible for Vercept not hiring the right business leadership. Bannon pushed back publicly, defending the founders and condemning what he described as disparaging remarks. The exchange quickly turned heated, with accusations ranging from poor judgement to legal threats.
Public spats between investors are rarely more than noise, but they reflect the high stakes in today’s AI race. A startup that raised a sizeable war chest and attracted top-tier backers is now being folded into Anthropic, rather than scaling independently.
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