US-based voice analytics technology developer Cogito has added $8m from investors including Hearst Ventures, the corporate venturing vehicle for media group Hearst, to a series C round that now totals $45m.
The unit invested alongside communications software producer Avaya, which provided its share of the funding in October this year, and venture capital firm Battery Ventures, adding to a $37m first tranche closed in July 2018.
The first close was led by investment banking firm Goldman Sachs and included Salesforce Ventures, the corporate VC arm of enterprise software provider Salesforce, and VC firm OpenView Venture Partners.
Cogito’s software platform uses artificial intelligence to help organisations analyse and interpret phone conversations with customers in real time.
The technology enables an organisation’s employees to determine customers’ responses and behavioural patterns so they can adapt their approach to provide a better experience.
Cogito added $4.1m to close its series B round at $19.1m in January 2017, according to a securities filing. The round’s $15m first tranche closed in November 2016 and was led by OpenView with participation from Salesforce Ventures and Romulus Capital.
The company had raised $1m in May 2016 according to a securities filing, after Romulus Capital led a $5.5m series A round in late 2015 that included Salesforce Ventures. It attracted $1m in seed capital in 2014, seven years after landing a $20,000 investment from Summer@Highland.