Vals, backed by Andreessen Horowitz, is looking to become the gold standard for AI benchmarking

Benchmarking has become the industry norm for how AI companies validate their models’ capabilities and, when the metrics swing in their favor, stand out from competitors and advertise their superiority. In other words, good benchmarks pretty much always mean good PR.

Unfortunately, companies have also figured out how to outwit legacy benchmarking systems — many of which are older , and not built to measure the capabilities of modern models.

Vals, a startup formed in 2024 , says that it is on a mission to fix this very imperfect system. In the span of less than two years, the company has established itself as a notable presence in the tech industry and, last year it managed to secure a seed round led by 8VC and Bloomberg Beta. Then, last month, after a period of rapid growth, it raised $40 million in a series A led by Andreessen Horowitz.