Gamma acquires Lika, the presentation race shifts from slide generation to visual communication research labs

The AI-powered presentation platform “Gamma” announced its acquisition of the design start-up “Lika”, in a move aimed at establishing an internal research lab focused on visual communication tools led by the co-founders of the acquired company. The deal brings together two firms that share the same investor base, as both are backed by “Accel” and “South Park Commons”, paving the way for merging research technologies with a distribution network that exceeds one hundred million users.

Lika was founded in 2023 by Priya Kalyanaraman and Borfanchi Mihta, and a year after its launch raised four million dollars in a funding round that included Accel, South Park Commons and Village Global. The company initially developed an app that converts screenshots and recordings into presentations and project videos, before shifting over the past two years to serve e-commerce platforms by producing marketing videos that closely adhere to brands’ visual identities. The transaction enables Gamma, whose market value reached 2.1 billion dollars after raising 68 million dollars, to broaden its generative toolset after previously adding static image generation features.

The deal reflects a broader shift in the smart presentation-tool market toward integration and platform unification.This move follows OpenAI’s acquisition of the “Next Slide” platform, amid large funding rounds that have hit the sector, including Present’s $50 million raise and Accel’s investment in Presentations.ai. The investment momentum reflects companies’ view that traditional slide generation is no longer sufficient to stay competitive, and that the next step requires AI models that understand complex communication contexts and live interaction between speaker and audience.

The new research lab inside Gamma focuses on redefining the shape of presentations and how audiences interact with them, by building platforms that can tailor presentation style and visual communication tone to suit diverse tastes and target groups. According to the companies’ leadership, the goal is not limited to producing good visual outputs, but extends to creating a flexible, multimedia system that lets users edit content visually and contextually in line with the broader communication objectives of an organization.

This shift has a direct impact on teams and companies in the Gulf, Egypt and the Levant, especially in consulting, marketing and business development sectors. The traditional reliance on separate tools for presentation design, marketing video production and visual-identity management is beginning to recede in favor of integrated solutions that understand brand guidelines and generate interactive content with less human effort. For marketing and corporate communications managers, the required skill becomes the ability to steer AI tools to customize a single presentation for diverse partner and client segments, rather than wasting hours aligning templates and manually editing slides.

Integrating Lika’s research into Gamma’s products also reshuffles spending priorities on productivity software within organizations and start-ups in the region. As these tools evolve into multimedia suites that combine text, design and interactive video, administrative teams will face a genuine opportunity to cut individual-app subscriptions and focus on comprehensive platforms that accelerate decision-making and deliver promotional presentations and executive reports with consistent visual precision.