21-year-old founder raises Rs 45 crore for AI startup that helps users cheat in Amazon, Meta interviews

A  21-year-old student of Columbia University, who was suspended in March for creating an AI tool to cheat in coding interviews to secure summer internships at tech giants like Amazon, Meta, and TikTok, has raised $5.3 million (about Rs 45 crore) in funding.

Describing his venture as an attempt at ‘changing the definition of cheating’, Chungin Lee built an AI tool called Interview Coder. He managed to create an invisible application that helped software engineers who used LeetCode during technical interviews.

Lee went viral on social media for deceiving the biggest tech companies and was criticised by Meta and Amazon, which led to his suspension from the University. Being removed from the institution barely demotivated Lee as he backed his initial development by creating ‘Cluely’.

He opened hidden in-browser windows as a means for users to cheat on everything, including interviews, exams, and sales calls. The app helps users by analysing what’s on their screens, hearing audio, and suggesting answers to questions, all without being detected from the other side.

The company announced a statement on X, confirming it has raised over $5 million in funding already.

‘They called calculators cheating. They called Google cheating. The world will say the same about AI. We’re not stopping. Cluely just raised a $5.3M pre-seed to build the future — faster,’ the statement read.

Speaking to Business Insider, Lee said that the San Francisco-based company is backed by Abstract Ventures and Susa Ventures and that it has gained about 70,000 users since its launch on Sunday.

“It is pretty crazy. And this is just a lot more than we expected,” he said, adding that the concept of “cheating” needs to be rethought in the AI era.

“Using AI is just inevitable and something that we should just all embrace,” he told the publication.

In an earlier post on X, Lee said he had been suspended four weeks after he launched Interview Coder and had been blacklisted by Amazon. But despite suggestions to quit with his AI adventure, he persisted with his plan to expand it.

“Everyone in my life told me to quit, but I ignored all advice and kept going. I’ve since come to learn that you need to swing big if you ever wanna make it. Hope this resonates with some of you. This mentality is what inspired me to build Cluely, the ultimate end-state of Interview Coder, and something I never would’ve thought I could build six months ago. This is the most ambitious project I will ever work on,” Lee shared on X.

(With inputs from PTI)