With the coronavirus came the downturn of the economy, which many thought would slow down funding in the startup space. One company defying that logic is ASAPP, an artificial intelligence-based software provider that helps call centers run more efficiently. On May 1, ASAPP announced it has secured a Series B funding round of $185 million bringing the company’s total funding raised to $260 million. Investors including John Doerr and Dave Strohm and firms like Emergence Capital, March Capital Partners, Euclidean Capital, Telstra Ventures, HOF Capital, and Vast Ventures participated in the round.
“Fortunate to have the opportunity to work with such an amazing team and help large enterprises during these extraordinary circumstances,” founder and CEO Gustavo Sapoznik shared on LinkedIn. Headquartered in New York, the company was founded in 2014.
As COVID-19 brings the world to a standstill, ASAPP has become an indispensable tool for businesses. With call agents being the first point of contact for many right now, agents are also tasked with stabilizing fears and challenges as they talk to customers. Empathy and convenience have quickly become the most important traits for a company to exhibit. This is where ASAPP comes in.
Sapoznik says that the company works with a number of large corporations, including JetBlue Airways and Dish Network, both of which have suffered disruptions due to coronavirus and an increase in call center traffic.
ASAPP’s software assists call center agents by suggesting what to do and say in real-time when communicating with a customer over the phone, email or web chats. During web chats, the software presents an agent with various responses that can be sent with a click.
The company’s machine-learning solutions are evolving all the time and by learning how to converse with people they’re “effectively turning every agent into your best agent without the need for manual programming or extensive training.”
ASAPP customers see anywhere between a 45% to 100% increase in customer satisfaction.
“We are thrilled and grateful by this latest investment, which allows ASAPP to continue scaling and meeting the extraordinary demands large enterprises are facing as a result of the global pandemic,” Sapoznik said in a statement. “Many organizations are experiencing historically high levels of customer interactions at a time when their capacity to support is at an all-time low. By augmenting agents who are on the frontlines, ASAPP enables them to be vastly more efficient and productive, realizing significant savings while delighting customers.”
A source close to the company says that ASAPP is now valued at over $800 million.
