Gamma buys Lica to establish a visual communication research division

Presentation startup Gamma has acquired Accel-backed design startup Lica to create a design research division led by Lica’s co-founders, Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta. The companies did not disclose the transaction value or identify products that will result from the deal.

Gamma will retain its focus on helping people create presentations while expanding its investigation of visual and interactive communication formats. The company says its application has reached more than 100 million users and has also begun offering image generation.

Lica’s research joins Gamma’s distribution

Lica was founded in 2023. It began as an application that transformed screenshots and recordings into project presentations and videos, then shifted its attention to marketing videos for e-commerce sites that follow brand guidelines.

In 2024, Lica raised $4 million from investors including Accel, South Park Commons and Village Global. Kalyanaraman said the company wanted to develop AI models around communication methods such as video and design. Shared backing from Accel and South Park Commons also meant Lica’s founders already knew Gamma chief executive Lee Grant before discussions developed into an acquisition.

Kalyanaraman described a common objective of making visual communication easier. She contrasted Lica’s focus on frontier research and user accessibility with Gamma’s work building distribution, citing Gamma’s base of more than 100 million users as a reason to combine the two efforts.

Personalised and multimodal presentation formats

Grant said presentations remain Gamma’s core use case, but the company wants to examine how they may look and feel, how people engage with them, which visuals are possible and how interactive they can become. Gamma characterises these questions as part of the underlying responsibility of communication.

Mehta said the research division will work on tailoring the presentation and communication styles of AI models to different audiences and preferences. The stated aim is a platform that produces a strong initial output and then lets users edit it for distinct audiences.

Gamma has not outlined a product roadmap following the acquisition. Its stated direction is toward fluid, multimodal presentations and other communication modalities rather than presentations alone.

A consolidating AI presentation market

The deal arrives as AI presentation companies continue to attract substantial funding. Prezent has raised $50 million across two rounds, while Gamma raised $68 million at a $2.1 billion valuation. Presentations.ai has also received backing from Accel. Consolidation is appearing in the category as well: OpenAI acquired NextSlide earlier this month.

For businesses assessing AI presentation software, the practical implication is to look beyond slide generation. Brand-guideline support, adaptation for different audiences, editing controls and the ability to handle multiple communication formats are becoming relevant capabilities to evaluate.