Gamma has acquired Lica, an Accel-backed design startup, as it builds a new design research lab, according to TechCrunch. The report says Lica co-founders Priyaa Kalyanaraman and Purvanshi Mehta will lead the effort inside Gamma. Lica was founded in 2023 by Kalyanaraman and Mehta. TechCrunch reports that the company initially built an app for turning screenshots and recordings into project presentations and videos, then shifted toward helping e-commerce sites create marketing videos that fit brand guidelines. A year after founding, Lica raised $4 million from investors including Accel, South Park Commons, and Village Global, according to the report. The companies already had investor overlap. TechCrunch reports that both Lica and Gamma were backed by Accel and South Park Commons, and that Lica’s founders had become familiar with Gamma CEO Lee Grant before talks developed into an acquisition. The strategic fit is visual communication. Lica had been interested in building artificial intelligence models around communication formats such as video and design, while Gamma had scaled a presentation product to a much larger user base. TechCrunch reports that Gamma has more than 100 million users, citing comments from Kalyanaraman. Gamma is not moving away from presentations, according to the report. Instead, the company is looking at how presentations could become more visual, interactive and multimodal. Gamma has also begun offering image generation, TechCrunch notes, and now wants the new research division to explore other communication formats beyond its current core use case. Mehta told TechCrunch that the research division will work on tailoring the presentation and communication styles of AI models for different audiences and preferences. Gamma did not disclose specific products it plans to build from the acquisition, according to the report, but said it wants to create more fluid, multimodal presentations and related communication modalities. The deal lands in a crowded and well-funded category. TechCrunch cites Prezent’s $50 million raised across two rounds, Gamma’s $68 million raise at a $2.1 billion valuation, and Accel’s backing of Presentations.ai as examples of investor interest in AI presentation software. The report also notes early consolidation, including OpenAI’s acquisition of NextSlide earlier this month. Who benefits: Gamma gains Lica’s founding team and design-video research direction as it explores multimodal presentation formats. Lica’s founders gain distribution through Gamma’s much larger user base, according to TechCrunch’s account of the rationale. Who's exposed: Rival AI presentation and design tools face a better-funded competitor adding research talent in personalization and multimodal communication. The level of exposure is still uncertain because Gamma has not disclosed the products that will come from the acquisition.