Launch Archive / X · Jun 2026
Launch post for the AI Gateway, emphasizing built-in observability, evaluations, prompt optimization, and routing across 1,000+ models.
The AI gateway with built-in observability & evals
Public company, workplace, funding, and market signals
Updated Jul 29, 2026
Respan (formerly Keywords AI) is a YC W24 startup building an LLM engineering platform for AI teams, combining gateway routing, observability, evaluations, and prompt management so teams can ship and monitor production AI agents.
Primary product
AI gateway, observability, and evaluation platform for LLM applications
Founded
2023
Headquarters
San Francisco, California, United States
Team size
10-20
Work style
Flexible
Industry
Software Development
Sub-industry
AI infrastructure / LLM observability
Offices
0 jobs at Keywords AI
Check back later for new openings
Business model
Leadership
CEO
Raymond Huang
CTO
Co-founder, Head of Sales
Head of DevRel
Head of Engineering
Investors
Small, intense team that ships weekly, talks to customers constantly, and often works from a shared hacker-house environment in Alameda; the company emphasizes craft, speed, and high ownership.
Work style
Flexible
Visa sponsorship
Limited
Compensation
Open roles have been publicly posted with cash compensation bands such as Product Engineer and Full-Stack SWE at $100K-$200K, Founding Technical GTM at $100K-$150K, SDR and Marketing up to $120K, SEO & Growth Content Lead up to $150K, plus meaningful equity.
Benefits
Pricing
Freemium plus subscription: Free tier, Team tier at $199/month billed yearly, and custom Enterprise pricing; additional usage-based fees apply for logs/scores.
Differentiators
Technology
Customers
Competitors
Estimated revenue
$277K-$4.2M (third-party estimate)
Estimated monthly visits
57.9K
Traffic estimate as of May 2026
Launch Archive / X · Jun 2026
Launch post for the AI Gateway, emphasizing built-in observability, evaluations, prompt optimization, and routing across 1,000+ models.
Pulse 2.0 · May 2026
Founder interview covering the company's origin story at UIUC, the pivot from routing to observability, the hacker-house operating style, and growth to more than 100 customers.
Respan · May 2026
Product launch page for the AI Gateway, describing routing across 500+ models, failover, caching, spend controls, and logging for production LLM traffic.
Yahoo Finance / GlobeNewswire · Mar 2026
Funding announcement for the $5M seed round led by Gradient, with participation from Y Combinator, Hat-Trick Capital, XIAOXIAO FUND, Antigravity Capital, and Alpen Capital; the release also highlights Respan's product positioning, customer traction, and revenue growth.
Respan · Feb 2026
The company publicly rebranded from Keywords AI to Respan and described its shift toward proactive LLM observability and evaluation for AI agents.