Gamma acquires design startup Lica

AI presentation startup Gamma acquired Lica, an Accel-backed design startup, and is folding its founding team into a new design research division, TechCrunch reported August 25. Lica, founded in 2023 by Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta, started out turning screenshots and recordings into project presentations and videos, then shifted toward helping e-commerce sites generate on-brand marketing videos. It had raised $4 million from Accel, South Park Commons, and Village Global.

The two companies were already close: both are backed by Accel and South Park Commons, and Kalyanaraman said the founders knew Gamma CEO Lee Grant personally. Under Gamma, Lica’s team will run a research division focused on customizing how AI models communicate, video, design, and tone, for different audiences, building toward a platform where a single output can be personalized and edited per audience rather than generated once and reused everywhere.

What it means for you

This is a small deal in dollar terms, terms weren’t disclosed, but the shape of it matters more than the size: a well-funded AI product company buying a founding team specifically for a research bet on personalization, rather than hiring individually or building the capability in-house. If you use Gamma or a similar AI presentation tool, expect that investment to show up eventually as more audience-aware output, the same content adapted in tone and format depending on who’s viewing it, rather than a single generic version. It also fits a broader pattern of AI labs and tooling companies buying small teams for a specific capability rather than raw headcount, worth watching if you’re evaluating the durability of a small AI-native vendor’s roadmap.