{
  "id": 181660,
  "title": "Startup Sapiom routes clients’ AI to lowest-cost tokens",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/05/startup-sapiom-routes-clients-ai-to-lowest-cost-tokens",
  "topic": "ai",
  "section": "AI",
  "published": "2026-08-05T16:19:55.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Semafor",
    "slug": "semafor",
    "url": "https://www.semafor.com/article/08/05/2026/startup-sapiom-routes-clients-ai-to-lowest-cost-tokens"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Startup Sapiom, based in San Francisco, is tackling the issue of skyrocketing AI token costs for businesses by optimizing model usage. Polsia, an AI-driven startup founded by Ilan Zerbib, experienced a massive revenue surge from $100,000 to $10 million but faced astronomical token spending of $1.2 million per month on Anthropic's models. After consulting with Sapiom, Polsia reduced its token consumption to about $100,000 per month.\n\nZerbib explained that current AI model prices are unsustainable for startups, even with high demand. To address this, Sapiom has raised a $35 million Series A round led by venture capital firm Dragonfly's Haseeb Qureshi, building on a $15 million seed round raised earlier this year. The company is also launching a single API key model router that automatically selects the most efficient AI model for each task, putting it in direct competition with OpenRouter, a leading player in the field.\n\nSapiom differentiates itself from other routing firms by operating its own servers for open weight models, allowing it to charge customers directly for compute costs rather than acting as a middleman. This approach also enables Sapiom to avoid premium pricing and offers additional services like payment processing and SMS for autonomous agents. Zerbib believes lower costs will ultimately help frontier model companies, as they'll be able to build more agents, leading to trillions of AI agents operating in the economy in the next three years.\n\nAs companies tighten their budgets and consider AI labor providers, Sapiom's focus on cost efficiency can provide startups and small-to-medium-sized businesses with the runway they need to succeed. However, competitive forces like Amazon, Microsoft, and OpenRouter may already be offering similar solutions, making the market for AI routing firms a crowded one.",
  "summary": "As AI spending ramps up, businesses want fast pathways to the cheapest models.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}