Expansion mode from Silicon Valley
Uniphore, incubated in 2008 at IIT Madras, is gaining momentum and has raised US$51 million in Series C funding led by March Capital Partners for its “go-to-the-market” in North America.
It will invest in research and development for the next wave of innovation on its platform and grow its talented employee base globally.
Other participants in the series were Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures), Sistema Asia, CXO Fund, ITP, Iron Pillar, Patni Family, plus other investors.
The new round of funding is Uniphore’s largest to date and marks one of the most substantial funding rounds in the conversational AI sector.
“Today’s announcement of our Series C funding represents a major milestone for Uniphore and the Conversational AI market as a whole. This funding will accelerate our vision to redefine customer service through AI-enabled Conversational Service Automation (CSA),” CEO and Cofounder Uniphore Umesh Sachdev said on 13 August 2019.
“We have always been strong innovators, and our global customers continue to rely on our solutions to help them deliver exceptional customer service. With this new round of funding, we will be able to accelerate our global expansion and better serve our customers by developing and delivering innovative CSA solutions to more organizations around the world,” he said.
March Capital Partners Managing Director Sumant Mandal added: “Uniphore recognized early on that the customer service industry had fundamental limitations which were not being addressed. Brands were not building meaningful relationships with their customers because they were simply reacting, rather than being proactive.
“Uniphore’s conversational AI technology is changing the way brands are serving and engaging with their customers. Uniphore’s unique technology enables a proactive approach by recognizing the true intent of customer calls and predicting what is coming next.
“Uniphore is not only anticipating what the future of customer service will be – they are leading the charge, and we look forward to working closely with them as they continue to innovate. We are excited to be part of the journey of a world-class team building globally competitive products at Uniphore.”
“Uniphore’s continued success is a testament to the company’s ability to foresee the next market transition and evolve the business model based on that insight promptly,” added JC2 Ventures CEO and founder John Chambers, an active advisor to Uniphore who picked up a 10% stake in company in 2017.
“Uniphore’s innovative conversational AI solutions address the growing needs of businesses to provide personalized customer experiences more efficiently and effectively. I believe Umesh and his team are well positioned to revolutionize the customer service industry while continuing to expand the market share. I echo March Capital’s sentiment that the future is extremely bright for Uniphore,” he said.
Most recently, Uniphore CEO Umesh Sachdev moved to Silicon Valley to expand the company’s reach in North America. The move has paved the way for several strategic new hires.
Annie Weckesser, veteran of Cisco and NIO, joined as Chief Marketing and People Officer in April.
Additionally, in May, Jafar Syed, joined as Chief Strategy & Growth Officer from NTT Data, and in June, Karen Smith, former executive at Directly and Convergys, started with Uniphore as Chief Revenue Officer.
Additionally, Mary Ann Bianco joined as Chief Customer Officer after leading customer success for Oracle’s Cloud SaaS applications business.
In July, Ashwin Chalapathy joined as Managing Director in India and Senior Vice President, Services, Asia Pacific.
In 2018, the company experienced 300% year-over-year growth and the year prior, Uniphore had an exciting Series B round with participation by various existing and new investors including IDG Ventures, IIFL and JC2 Ventures. Some of Uniphore’s customers include BNP Paribas, NTT Data, and PNB MetLife.
Uniphore is a global Conversational AI technology company with offices in the US, India and Singapore. Uniphore believes the future of customer service is every voice being truly heard.
The Company’s vision is to bridge the gap between people and machines through voice. Uniphore enables businesses globally to deliver transformational customer service by providing a platform of Conversational Analytics, Conversational Assistant and Conversational Security that changes the way enterprises engage their consumers, build loyalty and realize efficiencies. fiinews.com
