A new company setting out to unlock the potential of conversational AI technology has raised £4 million in its initial seed round of funding.
The funding into OpenDialog AI was secured in only four weeks and will be used for further product development and to support expansion plans in the UK and other major markets globally.
The founding team behind OpenDialog AI includes technology entrepreneur, Terry Walby (pictured above) – founder and CEO of Thoughtonomy, which sold to Blue Prism for $100m in 2019 – former Thoughtonomy chief commercial officer Dean Chapman and Dr Ronald Ashri, who led the research on which OpenDialog’s AI capabilities are built.
Dr Ashri (below) has overseen the incubation of the technology since its initial inception in 2019, working with experts in the field and validating with potential clients and use cases to create a market-ready, enterprise class SaaS platform.
The three co-founders came together to commercialise and further develop the product to address the challenges and issues with existing conversational AI technologies and build an ambitious new company in the space – one that will transform how humans interact with machines.
It has already secured several high-profile brands as customers including BDO, Peppercorn Insurance and The Cyber Helpline.
“OpenDialog will finally enable businesses and consumers to realise the game-changing potential of conversational AI – moving beyond the often painful experiences delivered by current chatbots and AI assistants,” said Walby.
“The market has been crying out for a solution like this, one that not only drives real operational efficiencies but also enhances and joins up customer experience across a wide range of channels.
“We’ve brought together a highly experienced team that is incredibly excited about the potential of this technology, and this initial round of funding will enable us to quickly scale the business and build on the foundations that are already in place.”
OpenDialog has a no-code conversation designer which it says enables businesses to create amazing customer experiences that are immediately deployable.
Recent use cases include a legal firm using the platform to triage eligibility of applicants for a class action lawsuit, a pharmaceutical company interacting with people reporting adverse effects from their drugs, and a challenger within the insurance market deploying the platform across its customer-facing channels to deliver market leading efficiencies.