US-based customer support services provider Dialpad secured $100m yesterday in a series E round that included GV, a corporate venturing subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet.
The round was led by Omers Growth Equity, a vehicle representing Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, and also featured Andreessen Horowitz, Iconiq Capital, Felicis Ventures, Section 32 and Work-Bench. The money was raised at a $1.2bn valuation.
Dialpad has built a mobile enterprise communication system on the Google Cloud Platform that can handle an organisation’s call centre, internal phone and conferencing activities. It said the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the growth of its business over recent months.
BofA Securities was placement agent for the deal, while Mark Shulgan, head of Omers Growth Equity, will take a seat on Dialpad’s board of directors. The company has now raised $220m since it was founded as Firespotter Labs in 2011.
GV invested $3m in Dialpad the same year and returned for a $15m series B round led by Andreessen Horowitz in 2012.
The company completed a $52m series C round in 2017 featuring GV, telecommunications and internet group SoftBank, Section 32, Amasia, Felicis Ventures, Work-Bench and Andreessen Horowitz that reportedly valued it at $250m.
Iconiq Capital led Dialpad’s last round, a $50m series D in mid-2018 also backed by Work-Bench, Andreessen Horowitz, Amasia, Section 32 and Scale Venture Partners.
Craig Walker, Dialpad’s chief executive, said: “We have seen a huge increase in demand for cloud communications tools, and we are raising additional capital to meet this demand. Users want a single platform to handle voice, video and messaging.
“They also want that platform to be smart; to do things like automate note taking and provide real-time insights and answers in response to what’s happening on a call or meeting. We have invested in real-time speech recognition, natural language processing and voice analytics on a system that works anywhere, on any device.”
