Merge

The models are ready. The infrastructure around them isn't. My cofounder and I bet the company on that gap three years ago, and rebuilt Merge around it. It's working.

For private equity investors, AI is becoming a gross margin issue. I’m a software engineer, have worked in investment banking and private equity, and now I’m a founder building in AI. A lot of software companies are adding AI features, but the infrastructure is still early. Models get hardcoded. Spend is hard to forecast. Every portfolio company ends up rebuilding the same cost controls. That creates waste across the portfolio. Merge helps portfolio companies reduce LLM spend through intelligent model routing, without changing the product, prompts, SDKs, or roadmap. One line of code, results from the first invoice. For PE firms trying to protect margin while their companies adopt AI: https://lnkd.in/ewJNM-7h

Today we’re launching Merge for Private Equity. We’re helping PE firms cut LLM spend across their portfolio companies without long implementation cycles or heavy platform fees. The idea is straightforward: portcos swap in Merge Gateway, we route requests to lower-cost models when quality holds, and savings show up on the invoice. Every portco gets $1,000 in free credits to start, and pricing improves as more companies in the portfolio come online. AI spend is becoming a real line item. We think there’s a big opportunity for PE firms to get ahead of it. If you’re at a PE firm or work in portfolio ops, would love to chat. https://lnkd.in/efEW9Y84

PE firms are going to run into the same AI spend problem across a lot of portfolio companies. The proof of concept looks cheap. Production does not. Once usage scales, teams realize they hardcoded one expensive model across too many use cases. They cannot forecast AI spend cleanly by customer, product, team, or feature. And they are rebuilding the same routing, fallback, limits, and cost controls company by company. Merge Gateway is built for this. Portcos swap one line of code, keep their existing prompts, and get model routing, fallback, cost controls, and request-level visibility in one place. That matters for one AI company. It matters more when the same problem shows up across the portfolio.

PE friends: Merge just launched a program built specifically to help you cut AI costs across your portfolio!!! Our customers are saving up to 20% on LLM spend and Pritak Patel would love to tell you more about it!

We’re growing the recruiting team and looking for a few good people to join us, whether you’re just breaking into recruiting or you’ve been doing this for years. It’s a fast paced team, a lot of fun, and a great place to learn and grow. You’ll also get to work alongside one of the best recruiting leaders out there Liam Naughton . If you’re interested or know someone who might be, apply below!

At Merge, we believe AI isn’t optional; it’s something everyone on our team is expected to learn, explore, and use day-to-day. It’s transforming how we build, think, and move faster for our customers. But just as important as embracing the future is recognizing what makes it all possible: our people. And as we just finalized the contract for our location this year, it made me step back and reflect that’s why moments like our yearly company offsite matter. Taking time to step away from the day-to-day, connect as humans, and simply enjoy each other’s company isn’t a break from the work, it’s part of what makes the work meaningful. We’re the tooling empowering AI. We're building with AI. We’re growing together. And we’re making space for both. And if you are looking to join a team like this check out our careers page: https://lnkd.in/ep8C6Nng

Merge is full swing in a hyper-growth phase, and I’ve been spending a lot of time talking to prospective new Mergies. One question I get often is: “What really differentiates Merge?” There are a lot of product and positioning answers to that question, but I’d be remiss not to mention one of the biggest ones: the team. Our team is relentless. We are passionate, curious, driven, and FUN (as evidenced by these photos)! We're hiring across all Engineering teams in both our SF & NY offices. Check out our open roles here: https://lnkd.in/dbXCsGq2 If you’re looking to join a fast-paced, ambitious, collaborative team, we’d love to hear from you.

Look who made the list 😉 !!! https://lnkd.in/eMTamRyF We are hiring! Come join one of the top AI companies with an incredible team: https://lnkd.in/ep8C6Nng