(Reuters) - Read AI, a productivity and AI automation startup, said on Monday it was valued at $450 million after a series B funding round led by Smash Capital.

The company raised $50 million in the latest round, which also saw participation from existing investors Madrona and Goodwater Capital, six months after it raised $21 million in series A.

Heightened enthusiasm around the generative artificial intelligence technology has helped AI startups attract funding from well-known private equity and venture capital firms.

Read AI provides a platform that seeks to improve meeting efficiency through note-taking, summarization and transcription features.

Separately, the company announced the launch of "Read AI for Gmail", a free Chrome extension that can bring information from other applications such as Slack, Microsoft Teams and Zoom in one streamlined place, reducing the need to switch between apps.

By introducing free features like "Read AI for Gmail", the company's goal is to drive the platform's adoption and expects to boost enterprise sign-ups as it adds more functionalities, David Shim, co-founder and CEO of Read AI, told Reuters.

Shim also said the funding would keep the company going for the next few years and expects to use the proceeds to increase headcount across engineering, data science and business teams.