Another member joins the fast-moving AI unicorn club: Simile. Just five months after emerging from stealth with a $100 million Series A led by Index Ventures, the startup has closed a $200 million Series B at a $2 billion valuation, according to the company.
The Series B was led by Greenoaks, with participation from Index, Hanabi, Bain Capital Ventures, A*, Factory, Definition, and CVS Health Ventures. Notably, CVS is also one of Simile’s marquee customers.
The startup offers simulated users for applications such as marketing and product research. It was founded by Stanford PhD graduate Joon Sung Park, whose dissertation included a project called “Smallville,” in which AI agents simulated human lives — right down to hosting parties.
Simile’s stated mission of simulating “all eight billion people on earth, accurately and honestly” may sound ambitious, even improbable. After all, the entire premise of market research is rooted in human unpredictability, shaped by both emotion and reason. Still, simulating users for research is a promising niche — akin to vibe coding for product mock-ups.
Simile is not alone in attracting venture capital for this approach. In December 2025, Aaru raised a Series A at a $1 billion headline valuation, signaling sustained investor appetite for synthetic-user platforms. As 2026 unfolds, expect this space to heat up further, with more startups vying to prove that AI-generated personas can deliver actionable insights at scale.