ASAPP, an NYC-based startup that provides AI-enabled software for call center agents working for major brands like JetBlue Airways and Dish Network, announced this week it closed on a $120 million Series C. The round values the company at $1.6 billion — double its valuation from its Series B financing a year ago — and caps off a year of massive growth for the business.
“In the wake of the current pandemic, many of us have experienced firsthand just how broken customer experience operations are,” John Gallagher, ASAPP’s VP of communications, told Built In via email last May. He predicted that the “unbearable wait times” and generally “overwhelmed” system brought on by pandemic-related cancellations and confusion would cause more call centers to adopt AI-driven solutions like ASAPP’s.
And it turns out, he was right. ASAPP says it has doubled its contracts in the last year.
“The customer experience industry is at a crossroads. After years of interactive voice response systems and bot investments, customer satisfaction is down, and costs have increased,” founder and CEO Gustavo Sapoznik said in a statement. “In an environment where customer expectations are rising, ASAPP is helping large enterprises advance digital engagement, real-time voice transcription, speech analytics, and live agent coaching and analytics.”
Unlike other similar software, ASAPP does not replace humans. Instead, it uses artificial intelligence to analyze a given call center’s most efficient agents’ calls, then uses that data to help the other agents adjust their approach in real time depending on what their customer is saying via phone or text. Sapoznik says ASAPP is one of the only companies of its kind exploring this relationship between AI and customer experience.
“We apply our AI research to make people in contact centers wildly more productive,” Sapoznik continued, adding that the existing “rules-based” technology limits companies to only small improvements, leaving them unable to fully take advantage of the “digital transformation opportunity” AI is providing.
Going forward, ASAPP says it plans to use this fresh funding to continue expanding its platform and growing its team, with more than 80 open tech positions at its headquarters in NYC and offices around the world.
New investors Fidelity Management & Research Company and Dragoneer participated in this latest round, along with existing investors like billionaire venture capitalist John Doerr and Emergence Capital. The round brings ASAPP’s total funding raised to $400 million.
