SpatialChat Acquires Y Combinator-Backed Pensil to Power the Future of Virtual Community Engagement

San Francisco, CA – August 25, 2025 — SpatialChat, the global leader in immersive video communication for virtual events, webinars, hyflex education, and virtual offices, today announced the acquisition of Pensil, a Y Combinator and Goodwater Capital-backed community platform. This strategic move accelerates SpatialChat’s vision for deeply integrated, AI-powered engagement communities across education, virtual events, and remote teams.

Founded by Surender Singh after completing his MBA at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Pensil emerged from Y Combinator’s W21 batch, building a robust platform that powers thousands of education, creator, and SaaS communities. Pensil’s product makes community building frictionless, seamlessly combining threaded discussions, live events, AI agents, and analytics in one unified space.

A Strategic Step in Redefining Engagement

With over 6 million users in 200+ countries, SpatialChat has established itself as a leading choice for immersive collaboration, trusted by Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Google, McKinsey, Mozilla, and thousands of universities, alongside numerous Fortune 500 companies. The acquisition of Pensil expands SpatialChat’s capabilities to not only host world-class live experiences, but also extend engagement before, during, and after events, creating a continuous, thriving community loop.

“Education, virtual events, and remote collaboration are converging into communities that live beyond the meeting room,” said Riddhik Kochhar, CEO of SpatialChat. “Pensil’s product vision and team perfectly complement SpatialChat’s platform, enabling us to offer AI-powered, always-on spaces where learning, collaboration, and connection thrive.”

The acquisition also reflects a broader trend: asynchronous and AI-augmented collaboration is becoming just as important as real-time video. Pensil’s technology will be tightly integrated into the SpatialChat experience, making it easier than ever to host discussions, share knowledge, and build lasting communities—before, during, and after events.

"We built Pensil to make online communities feel personal, intelligent, and powerful," said Surender Singh, Co-founder of Pensil. "Joining forces with SpatialChat enables us to take that mission global. Their reach and vision unlock the next chapter for Pensil."

“This move signals our commitment to the future of collaboration,” said Vivek Bhaskaran, Chairman of SpatialChat and CEO of QuestionPro. “With Pensil, we are combining immersive video with intelligent community infrastructure — unlocking massive opportunities across education, enterprises, and global organizations.”

“We’ve always aimed to make community management effortless and intelligent,” said Anil Meena, Co-founder of Pensil. “Partnering with SpatialChat enables us to deliver an AI-powered home where communities can truly thrive at a global scale

From a branded website to discussions, courses, events, payments, email marketing, AI agents, and more, Pensil gives you everything you need to build and scale your community-led business.

Pictured (left to right): Vivek Bhaskaran, CEO of QuestionPro; Riddhik Kochhar, CEO of SpatialChat; and Surender Singh, CEO of Pensil celebrating the acquisition announcement in San Francisco.

Seizing a Global Opportunity

The $100B+ virtual collaboration and community engagement market is rapidly evolving, and SpatialChat is already embedded in classrooms, conferences, and workspaces worldwide. With the acquisition of Pensil, the company will supercharge its footprint across:

• Online Education: Deep LMS integrations, cohort-based discussions, and dynamic faculty–student engagement that continues long after the lecture ends.
• Events & Webinars: Transforming one-off events into thriving, always-on communities that connect attendees before, during, and after the big day.
• Remote Work & DAOs: Delivering a focused, intelligent alternative to Slack and Discord with dedicated spaces built for collaboration, governance, and innovation.
• AI Agents: Always-On Community Partners: Intelligent, always-available companions that guide, coach, and engage members 24/7. Trained on your own posts, courses, and resources, they deliver personalized onboarding and support in your authentic voice. Manage all interactions from one shared AI inbox, stepping in only when human touch is needed.

By merging SpatialChat’s immersive live collaboration with Pensil’s AI-first community infrastructure, the company is building the world’s most intelligent, always-engaged home for communities.

AI Agents & Product Roadmap

As part of the integration, SpatialChat will introduce AI community agents trained on conversation history and knowledge bases, to automatically assist, onboard, and moderate discussions. These agents will be available across both live and asynchronous channels.

Team & Integration

The Pensil team, including its engineering and product leadership, will join SpatialChat to continue building out the unified community layer. A beta version of the integrated product is expected to launch in Q3 2025, with broader rollout by Q4.

About SpatialChat

SpatialChat is a global leader in virtual collaboration and immersive communication, serving over 6 million users across 200+ countries. Built for events, education, and enterprise, SpatialChat powers scalable, customizable, and human-centered digital spaces that feel as natural as being in the same room. From hyflex classrooms and interactive webinars to virtual offices and global conferences, the platform enables organizations to connect, collaborate, and engage without limits. With advanced features like AI-powered facilitation, spatial audio, real-time collaboration tools, and deep LMS integrations, SpatialChat is redefining the future of online interaction.

About Pensil

Pensil is a Y Combinator (W21) and Goodwater Capital-backed community platform designed to help educators, creators, and SaaS companies build thriving, sustainable online communities. Trusted by thousands worldwide, Pensil blends asynchronous discussion, live events, and AI-driven engagement tools into one seamless experience. Communities on Pensil benefit from threaded conversations, intelligent moderation, personalized AI agents, and built-in analytics — all designed to foster meaningful connections and continuous engagement. Whether for a university cohort, a creator’s audience, or a global SaaS user base, Pensil makes community building effortless and impactful.