PolyAI, a global provider of enterprise voice assistants, has raised almost £40 million in a Series C round of funding.
The company spun out of Cambridge University’s preeminent Machine Intelligence Lab in 2017 and today serves close to 100 enterprise customers including FedEx, PG&E, Caesars, Marriott, Unicredit and other Fortune 500 companies.
The round is backed by new investors Hedosophia, Nvidia’s NVentures and Zendesk, with follow-on investments from Khosla Ventures, Georgian, Point72 Ventures, Sands Capital and Passion Capital.
PolyAI has now secured over $120 million in funding.
In the past year, a PolyAI enterprise customer launched one of the world’s first voice assistants to be fully powered by generative AI, now used by millions of consumers. With another global brand, PolyAI released the world’s most multilingual enterprise assistant, speaking 12 languages. PolyAI has grown 10x over the last two years, with US companies representing over 70% of its revenue.
“Anyone who has ever picked up the phone to get support from their favourite brands has experienced the frustration of dealing with bad customer service,” said CEO and co-founder Nikola Mrkšić.
“Our mission is to make every company the best version of itself in every customer interaction. This raise is a testament to the work we’ve put in to make that mission a reality.
“We aim to be the voice that handles – and handles well – over half of all automated customer service calls within the next five years.”
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, added: “We are experiencing a Cambrian explosion in AI that will impact every industry.
“We bet early on PolyAI and the team as a category creator for AI-powered, voice-based customer support, and are thrilled to continue supporting them in making customer service the top brand experience for any company.”
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