SAN FRANCISCO, Dec. 17 -- Grammarly announced on Tuesday that the company is acquiring productivity startup Coda.

The acquisition will help turn Grammarly's artificial intelligence (AI) assistant into an "AI productivity platform" thanks to the addition of Coda's AI tools and products, the San Francisco-based company said.

The deal will give Grammarly customers access to new features, such as generative AI chat and a productivity suite, to help them work more efficiently, it noted.

As part of the deal, Coda's CEO and co-founder Shishir Mehrotra will become the new CEO of Grammarly.

Grammarly's current CEO, Rahul Roy-Chowdhury, said in a statement that he is stepping down from his role and that he will work alongside Mehrotra as an adviser.

Mehrotra previously served as YouTube's chief product officer and chief technology officer. He outlined his vision for Grammarly in a blog post. "Imagine if the Assistant not only gave amazing suggestions and refinements based on the writing it sees today but also had permission-aware connections into all of your other systems (from your email to docs to CRM to project trackers and more)."

"In the longer term, we plan to weave the best of Coda and Grammarly together," Mehrotra wrote. "It will combine your company knowledge, generative AI chat features, a full productivity suite, and hundreds of agents to help you work smarter. We aim to redefine productivity for the AI era."

Founded in 2009, Grammarly has 40 million active users and is valued at 13 billion U.S. dollars. Coda was valued at 1.4 billion dollars following its Series D raise in 2021.

  - Xinhua