Presentation startup Gamma has purchased Lica, a design-focused company backed by Accel, to establish a design research lab — with Lica’s co-founders leading the new unit. Gamma aims to broaden its product offerings beyond presentations to encompass more advanced visual communication formats.
Lica launched in 2023 by founders Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta. Its initial product transformed screenshots and recordings into polished project presentations and videos. Within a year, Lica raised $4 million from backers including Accel, South Park Commons, and Village Global. Since then, the company’s emphasis has shifted toward partnering with e-commerce businesses to produce marketing videos aligned with brand identities.
Why Gamma and Lica Came Together
Kalyanaraman has shared that Lica always envisioned advancing AI models tailored for communication — especially video and design. Since both Gamma and Lica share investors in Accel and South Park Commons, leadership overlaps facilitated early dialogues between the companies. Over time, those conversations matured into a deal to combine their capabilities.
Gamma will retain its core mission of helping people build presentations while expanding its scope. It is already moving into image generation, and with Lica now onboard, it plans to explore new communication formats. The newly formed research division will aim to personalize presentation styles and adapt them for different audiences and preferences. Features like interactivity, richer visuals, and fluid, multimodal content are now part of Gamma’s vision for what presentations (and communication broadly) can become.
Wider Trends: What This Signals
The acquisition occurs amid growing investor enthusiasm and consolidation in the AI presentation sector. Companies like Prezent have raised big rounds; Gamma itself secured $68 million at a $2.1 billion valuation; and startups such as Presentations.ai are also under Accel’s umbrella. Even industry giants are jumping in: OpenAI recently purchased NextSlide. The landscape is shifting fast toward startups that blend visual design, AI-generated content, and communication tools.
Gamma hasn’t yet disclosed which specific tools or products the research unit will roll out from this deal, but the signals are clear. Multimodal communication — mixing visuals, video, interactivity — is poised to become central. With Lica’s research into customizing style, tone, and format for different audiences, Gamma looks to push presentations beyond slide decks into richer, more dynamic mediums.
This acquisition means more than just a product roadmap expansion. It reflects a larger shift in how companies think about visual communication: not just as static content, but as adaptable, personalized expressions tailored to audience needs. Gamma’s move could redefine what ‘‘presentation’’ means in the AI era, and competitors will soon need to follow—or risk falling behind.
