Superhuman acquires YC-backed notetaker Fathom as productivity platforms push for agentic work

Superhuman is joining the cadre of productivity platforms launching notetakers — but rather than building one internally, it is acquiring Y Combinator-backed Fathom.

AI-powered productivity platforms aim to automate work. Typically, that automation is triggered when a user types prompts and creates workflows. It would be even better, however, if AI could proactively start work, and for that, the topics and action items discussed in meetings are key. Hence the desire by Superhuman and similar platforms to move into notetaking.

To date, Fathom, which was founded in 2020, has raised over $30 million in funding, and it was valued at $94 million in 2024, according to data from PitchBook. Its investors include Zoom Apps Fund, Telescope Partners, BoxOne Ventures, and Maven Ventures. Its cap table also includes individuals such as Reddit CEO Steve Huffman, former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear, and Cruise co-founder Kyle Vogt.

The notetaker offers a generous free plan, and that has resulted in over 400,000 monthly active users. The company said that over 1 million people have recorded meetings until now.

TechCrunch learnt that earlier this year, Superhuman tested a notetaker internally with select users, but eventually chose to acquire a finished product to integrate with its productivity suite, with AI at the center. Shishir Mehrotra, Superhuman’s CEO, acknowledged this; he said that in the process of testing, the company realized how hard it is to create a notetaker.