Kais Khimji spent much of his career as a venture investor, including six years as a partner at sequoia Capital. But, like other former Sequoia partners – such as David Vélez, founder of Nubank – Khimji always aspired too be a startup founder. On Thursday, he announced the launch of blockit, an AI calendar-scheduling company, based on an idea he developed a decade ago as a Harvard student. Sequoia led Blockit’s $5 million seed round, demonstrating strong belief in the venture.
“Blockit has a chance to become a $1Bn+ revenue business, and Kais will make sure it gets there,” said Pat Grady, Sequoia’s general partner and co-steward, in a blog post.
Numerous startups have attempted to automate scheduling, but Khimji believes recent advancements in LLMs allow Blockit’s AI agents to schedule more effectively than previous efforts, including those from Clara Labs and x.ai.(The x.ai domain is now owned by Elon Musk’s AI company.)
Unlike Calendly,currently the market leader (last valued at $3 billion), Blockit aims to handle complex scheduling scenarios with minimal user input. Calendly primarily focuses on providing a link for others to book time on your calendar. Blockit, though, intends to manage entire schedules, proactively resolving conflicts and optimizing time allocation. Khimji envisions Blockit as a collaborative AI assistant that understands your priorities and manages your calendar accordingly.
Blockit’s seed round also included participation from Coatue and Lightspeed Venture Partners. The company plans to use the funds to expand its team and further develop its AI capabilities.