Gradient Ventures, the artificial intelligence-focused fund owned by internet and technology conglomerate Alphabet, has invested in US-based business messaging service NumberAI as part of its $10.5m series A round, according to VentureBeat.
The round was led by Costanoa Ventures and included another venture capital firm, DFJ, the latter having previously supplied $1.6m in seed funding for the company, TechCrunch reported in October 2017.
Founded in 2016, NumberAI has developed an artificial intelligence (AI)-based platform called Numa that enables businesses to convert customer service calls into messaging conversations which are stored in an online inbox.
Numa can analyse customer conversations to learn new answers to questions, replace voicemail prompts by redirecting customers to messaging, direct callers to appropriate employees and handle orders and appointments such as restaurant reservations.
Mark Selcow, a partner at Costanoa, will join NumberAI’s board of directors in connection with the round, as will DFJ partner Andreas Stavropoulos.