Jump to content

Conversica: Difference between revisions

Edit links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Next edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Created page with references
(No difference)

Revision as of 11:35, 20 September 2019

Conversica
Type of businessPrivate
Type of site
Artificial Intelligence Intelligent Virtual Assistant Enterprise software[1]
Available inMultilingual
FoundedBellingham, Washington, United States (2007)
Headquarters
Foster City, California
,
United States[1]
Area servedWorldwide
Founder(s)Ben Brigham, Senior Vice President
Key peopleAlex Terry, CEO
ProductsConversica AI Assistants
Employees>250
URLwww.conversica.com
RegistrationRequired
Users>1700 companies
Current statusActive

Conversica is a US-based cloud software technology company, founded in 2007 in Bellingham, Washington, and now headquartered in Foster City, California. Conversica offers Intelligent Virtual Assistants for business, and is the pioneer in providing AI-driven lead engagement software for marketing and sales organizations.[2]


History

In 2007, Ben Brigham founded AutoFerret.com, later named AVA.ai, which then became Conversica as it is today. AutoFerret produced a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) product, targeted at automotive dealerships. This soon expanded to lead generation, and then lead validation and qualification. The AI for which Conversica is known today was born (at first just as a simple auto-responder) out of a need to filter out low-quality leads, and in time it was clear that this was where the real value of the product lay. The subsequent history of the company has been iteration and refinement of the AI-lead interaction. As the company moved away from generating leads themselves, and providing the CRM themselves, it became necessary to integrate with existing CRMs and Marketing Automation platforms, such as Salesforce. Today, Conversica has over 50 different integrations with third parties, many as formal relationships.

Conversica's founding offices are in Bellingham, Washington, and Kansas City, Missouri. Following investment from Kennet Partners in 2013, the company head quarters was moved to Foster City, California.[3] A further US office followed in Seattle in 2017.[4]

Kennet Partner's investment led to a serious initiative to expand beyond their automotive customer base, and in 2014, Ava.ai changed its name to Conversica, the title by which it is known today.[5] The next year, Alex Terry joined as Chief Executive Officer.[6]. Other key hires included Jason Lund as Chief Finance Officer (CFO),[7], Werner Koepf as Senior Vice President of Engineering (both 2015),[8], and Dr Sid Reddy as Chief Scientist in 2017.[9]

To date (September 2019), Conversica has received four rounds of funding. The company took a Series B round of funding in late 2016, raising $34m.[10]. Two years later the firm raised the largest Series C ever for a Conversational Artificial Intelligence Company at $31m.[11]

Also in 2018, Conversica acquired Intelligens.ai, (which had been set up by original founder Ben Brigham in 2016), giving them a regional presence in Latin America with an office in Las Condes, Chile. [12]

In 2019, Conversica was named Marketo's Technology Partner of the Year,[13] and officially expanded into the EMEA region with the opening of a London office.[14]

Technology

Conversica's Intelligent Virtual Assistants are AI assistants who communicate with a company's prospects or customers via email and SMS, in a human-like manner, leveraging natural language understanding, natural language processing, and natural language generation. They do so in a number of languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. The Assistants are generally deployed alongside sales and marketing, customer success, and higher education admissions teams, as part of an augmented workforce.[15]

References

  1. ^ a b "Crunchbase – Conversica". CrunchBase. Retrieved 2019-02-21.
  2. ^ https://techcrunch.com/2018/10/30/conversica-which-uses-ai-to-replicate-sales-agents-raises-31m-now-valued-around-300m/
  3. ^ https://www.kennet.com/news/press-releases/kennet-partners-announces-16m-investment-in-ava-ai-and-names-mark-a-bradley-as-ceo/
  4. ^ https://www.geekwire.com/2017/why-seattle-is-the-place-to-be-for-ai-startups-according-to-one-that-recently-opened-an-office-here/
  5. ^ https://www.conversica.com/ava-ai-announces-name-change-to-conversica/
  6. ^ https://www.conversica.com/conversica-names-saas-industry-veteran-alex-terry-as-new-ceo/
  7. ^ https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/08/13/760532/10145971/en/Conversica-Names-SaaS-Veteran-Jason-Lund-as-New-CFO.html
  8. ^ https://www.conversica.com/ticketmaster-engineering-executive-joins-conversica-to-grow-technology-team-and-further-drive-innovation/
  9. ^ https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170831005432/en/Conversica-Appoints-Dr.-Sid-J.-Reddy-Chief
  10. ^ https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/14/conversica-lands-34-million-series-b-to-build-intelligent-sales-assistants/
  11. ^ https://www.martechadvisor.com/news/sales-enablement/conversica-raises-31-million-in-series-c-funding-round/
  12. ^ https://smallbiztrends.com/2018/02/conversica-acquired-intelligens-small-business.html
  13. ^ https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/conversica-named-technology-partner-of-the-year-by-marketo-2019-02-26
  14. ^ https://www.conversica.com/conversica-opens-office-in-london/
  15. ^ https://www.conversica.com/resources/sales-ai-assistant/
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Conversica&oldid=916738729"