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Strawberry raises $6M and launches agentic AI-powered browser
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Strawberry raises $6M and launches agentic AI-powered browser

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October 14, 2025

Anna Wood is the Editor of Startups Magazine. She joined…

Alongside the financing, Strawberry is launching an upgraded version of its agentic browser with key new features. Early access will be limited to select customers, with broader onboarding planned on a rolling basis each month.

While enterprise companies deploy AI through million-dollar budgets and multi-year projects, freelancers, startups and small businesses need solutions that work immediately. Current AI tools demand technical expertise, force users to rip out and replace their entire workflow, or trap them in standalone interfaces disconnected from the browser – where work actually happens. Strawberry embeds AI directly into browsing, creating an intelligent workspace, adaptive and personalized to how each person works.

Charles Maddock, Co-Founder and CEO, Strawberry commented: “The browser is a tool most people use daily and know intimately. By giving Strawberry powerful AI features out of the box, we’re making AI automation accessible to everyone. This funding helps us continue our mission to help modern workers love what they do and skip their busywork.”

The financing will fuel Strawberry’s expansion across engineering and design to support rapid iteration with its growing beta community. The company is developing increasingly sophisticated agentic capabilities that enable AI companions to navigate complex, multi-step workflows within the browser environment, from comprehensive market research to lead generation across password-protected platforms.

Yuri Sagalov, Partner at General Catalyst said: “The browser is fast becoming the front line for AI, and the Strawberry team is at the centre of that shift. Their user-centric design and Charles’s ability to galvanise a community give them what we think is a leading edge to capture value in this rapidly evolving market.”

“We got to know Charles even before Strawberry was founded, and were struck by his passion for AI and sharp perspective where it was headed, said Sandra Malmberg, Partner, EQT Ventures. “Their ambition to build at global scale, infectious passion and ability to attract exceptional talent made it an easy decision to become their first investor,” adds Gustav von Sydow, Partner, EQT Ventures.

See Also
When global labour market data is released, headlines tend to fixate on a single metric: unemployment. This year is no different. According to the latest figures from the United Nations and the International Labour Organisation, global unemployment remains relatively stable at just under five per cent. At face value, this suggests a labour market that is holding firm despite economic uncertainty, geopolitical instability and technological upheaval. In reality, it masks a serious and underreported problem: the true global jobs crisis is not a lack of work, but the growing scale of informal work. More than 2.1 billion people worldwide are employed in the informal economy, including misclassified workers operating outside effective regulatory coverage, where employment is typically unregistered, contracts are absent or unenforced, and access to labour rights and social protections is limited or non-existent. That represents a large portion of the global workforce. If unemployment reveals how many people cannot find work, informality shows how many are working without protection or long-term opportunity. Informal work is often associated with developing economies or unregulated sectors. However, this form of work is increasingly occurring within developed economies and regulated sectors, hidden within otherwise legitimate, fast-growing small and medium-sized enterprises – and this is often unintentional. For both businesses operating solely in domestic markets and those that have expanded abroad, adopting new workforce models and attempting to respond to rapid technological change, the crisis of informality is emerging in three key areas. The first is worker misclassification. Individuals are engaged as independent contractors but operate in practice like employees – working fulltime, at set hours, for years at a time. This is particularly prevalent in gig and platform-based roles, where algorithms determine pay, hours and performance without considering employment rights. Gig and platform work often presents as flexible and empowering, however, in practice, many platforms exercise employer-like control over payment, performance management, hours, and length of engagement, while explicitly avoiding employer obligations such as tax filings and the provision of statutory benefits like annual leave and healthcare. The result is a growing cohort of workers who fall between legal categories, carrying the risks of self-employment without the autonomy or protections that should accompany this mode of work. The second area is cross-border remote work, where informality can inadvertently arise. With post-COVID remote working models here to stay, companies are directly hiring overseas talent, assuming that because the worker is not based in the company’s home country, local employment laws do not apply. Where employment is not properly registered (whether by the employer and/or employee), local labour law is not applied, or social security obligations are misunderstood or ignored, these arrangements can slip into a form of modern informality, even where the relationship appears to be formal on the surface. This is often the point at which organisations begin to seek external guidance. In many cases, neither party fully understands the legal implications of the arrangement, which leaves both employer and worker exposed. We frequently see organisations approach us when a specific issue surfaces, such as payroll inconsistencies, questions around benefits entitlement, or concerns raised by the workers themselves, including registration process failures. Business leaders should also be aware that permanent establishment risk can arise if a remote employee is deemed to represent the company locally, which can trigger corporate tax obligations. Social security errors can happen when contributions are not made correctly in either jurisdiction, leaving workers without coverage and employers facing backdated liabilities. Meanwhile, employment law conflicts can emerge when contracts fail to meet the requirements of the host country regarding notice periods, benefits or termination rights. The third driver of informality is structural. These arrangements are becoming more common as artificial intelligence and evolving workforce models outpace regulation. Businesses are innovating at speed, but legal frameworks are struggling to keep pace. The UK’s Employment Rights Act offers a clear case study of the direction of travel. Worker protections are expanding, classification rules are tightening and enforcement is becoming more coordinated across agencies. Informal arrangements that once sat in legal grey areas are moving firmly into view and what was previously tolerated is falling under scrutiny. The challenge is that informality is rarely a deliberate choice. For many growing organisations, it becomes the default because compliant pathways are complicated and difficult to navigate alone, particularly across multiple jurisdictions. Legal advice, payroll, tax, HR, and immigration compliance are often siloed, leaving gaps that businesses may not even realise exist until a problem arises. For instance, digital nomad visas are often viewed as providing holders with wholly compliant right to work status, however employers may not realise that this is not always the case and contracts may not reflect the correct legal status or entitlements. Addressing informality requires a change in how we think about employment at a global level and recognising that flexibility and compliance are not mutually exclusive. Businesses need models that allow them to access global talent quickly while ensuring workers are properly employed and protected under local law. As attention remains fixed on unemployment figures, informality continues to expand beneath the surface. It is this hidden cohort of workers, contributing economically without security or rights, that represents the real crisis in the global labour market. Solving it will require coordinated action from policymakers and businesses alike, and a commitment to building workforce models that are not only innovative, but sustainable and fair.
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Strawberry’s no-code approach to AI assistant creation has already demonstrated strong market validation. Early users are deploying custom companions for diverse applications, from competitive intelligence gathering to sales prospecting, with results that have earned recognition as Product of the Day and Product of the Week on Product Hunt. As one beta user noted: “This is like nothing I’ve ever tried before.”

The platform signals a broader shift from sterile, corporate AI tools toward personalised companions that bring both capability and personality to work. By transforming routine tasks into collaborative experiences, Strawberry is redefining what it means to work alongside AI.

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