Octane AI
Headquarters
New York, NYFounded
2016CEO / Founder
Ben ParrEmployees
11-50Funding
Series A — $4.7MProducts
1 product listedAvg. AI Score
7.9/10Website
octaneai.com/
Profile updated
About Octane AI
Octane AI is a software company headquartered in New York, founded in 2016 by Ben Parr and Matt Schlicht. The company initially focused on Facebook Messenger chatbots for e-commerce before pivoting to product quiz and zero-party data tools aimed at Shopify merchants.
The company's primary product is a quiz builder that allows online retailers to create product recommendation quizzes, which guide shoppers toward relevant products and collect declared customer preferences. These quizzes integrate with Shopify storefronts and connect to email and SMS marketing platforms such as Klaviyo. Octane AI positions its toolset around zero-party data collection, helping merchants build customer profiles based on self-reported information rather than behavioral tracking.
Octane AI raised a seed round and subsequently a Series A, with total disclosed funding of approximately $4.7 million. The company operates with a small team and serves primarily direct-to-consumer brands on the Shopify ecosystem. Co-founder Ben Parr, a former Mashable editor and author, serves as CEO.
Specialties
Financials
Dated, source-cited figures. Estimates are marked.
Products by Octane AI
All products by Octane AI reviewed by our AI panel of experts.
How Our Review Panel Scores Octane AI
Six independent reviewer personalities assessed Octane AI's product on their own terms. They landed within 0.5 points of each other, an unusually strong consensus.
Averaged across 1 reviewed product in our catalog. Scores are out of 10.
Competitive Landscape
Who Octane AI competes with, and how they differ.
Jebbit builds branded, no-code interactive quizzes and zero-party-data forms for large retail and DTC brands (Toyota, L'Oreal), competing directly with Octane AI's quiz product but selling into enterprise marketing teams rather than being Shopify-native.
Prehook is a Shopify app for pre-purchase quiz funnels and post-purchase upsells, the closest like-for-like alternative to Octane AI's Shop Quiz, aimed at solo and small-team merchants on smaller subscription tiers.
Nosto sells AI-driven onsite personalization and product recommendations across web, email and ads for mid-market e-commerce brands, competing on breadth of channel coverage rather than Octane AI's quiz-first data-collection approach.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Rebuy Engine is a Shopify-native personalization and upsell platform (cart, checkout, post-purchase), overlapping with Octane AI in the Shopify app ecosystem but focused on conversion offers rather than interactive quizzes.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Dynamic Yield, now owned by Mastercard, sells enterprise experimentation and personalization infrastructure to large retailers at price points well above Octane AI's Shopify-app pricing model.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewed
Constructor sells AI-powered search and product-discovery infrastructure to large e-commerce retailers, competing with Octane AI's guided-selling quizzes as an alternative path to personalized product discovery.
1 product reviewed on TopReviewedCompany Timeline
Key milestones in Octane AI's history, with sources.
- Milestone
CEO Matt Schlicht and co-founder Ben Parr depart for Meta Superintelligence Labs
Meta acquired Moltbook, the AI-agent social network Octane AI CEO Matt Schlicht had launched as a side project in January 2026, bringing Schlicht and Octane AI co-founder Ben Parr into Meta Superintelligence Labs (the unit run by Alexandr Wang) starting March 16, 2026. Octane AI itself was not part of the acquisition and continued operating independently under new leadership.
officechai.com - Funding
$5M raised, led by Javelin Venture Partners; named Shopify's 2021 Best Storefront App
Octane AI raised $5M led by Javelin Venture Partners (Alex Gurevich joining as board observer) with existing investors Bullpen Capital, General Catalyst and Boost VC participating, bringing total funding to $14M. The company said its tools had generated over $73M in revenue for Shopify merchants and was named Shopify's 2021 Best Storefront App.
prnewswire.com - Funding
$4.25M raised, led by Bullpen Capital, as company pivots to Shopify quizzes
Octane AI raised $4.25M led by Bullpen Capital with General Catalyst, Boost VC, FJ Labs and others, bringing total funding to $9M. The round coincided with the private-beta launch of Shoppable Quiz, marking the company's shift from Facebook Messenger celebrity chatbots to Shopify-native product-recommendation quizzes.
mediapost.com - Milestone
Co-founder Leif K-Brooks (Omegle founder) named to Forbes 30 Under 30
Forbes profiled Leif K-Brooks — who founded the chat site Omegle at age 18 — as a co-founder of Octane AI in its 2018 30 Under 30 Enterprise Technology list, alongside fellow Octane AI co-founders Matt Schlicht and Ben Parr who had also previously made the list.
forbes.com - Founded
Launches Facebook Messenger chatbot platform with $1.5M seed round
Octane AI debuted its no-code Facebook Messenger chatbot builder, founded by Matt Schlicht, Ben Parr, and Omegle founder Leif K-Brooks. The $1.5M seed round was led by General Catalyst Partners with Boost VC and angels including Ustream founder Brad Hunstable. Early clients included celebrity chatbots for 50 Cent, Aerosmith and KISS.
hypebot.com
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