Onward, a US-based chatbot developer backed by a subsidiary of marketing firm R/GA, has been acquired by internet technology provider Google for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 2015 as Agent Q, Onward provides enterprises with natural language processing-powered chatbots that analyse customer signals such as location and historical activity to offer appropriate, personalised responses.
Google, a subsidiary of internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, plans to integrate Onward’s underlying artificial intelligence technology with its own services. The company also still operates automated product recommendation assistant called Agent Q.
RGA Ventures, RGA’s corporate venturing subsidiary, selected Onward for its retail-focused Connected Commerce Accelerator in August 2016.
The scheme provided participants with $120,000 in funding from R/GA in exchange for 5% equity, and was run in partnership with Westfield Labs, the former digital services arm of shopping centre operator Westfield.
Westfield Labs was spun out and renamed OneMarket when its parent company was acquired by retail asset manager Unibail-Rodamco in December 2017.