Observe.AI Raises $125 Million, Bringing Contact Centers Closer to an AI-Dominated Future

CHANNEL PARTNERS CONFERENCE & EXPO, LAS VEGAS — Observe.AI (a featured CP Expo sponsor) has raised a whopping $125 million in a new funding round led by SoftBank with participation from Zoom. Observe.AI’s platform transforms contact centers through AI, a technology that has the support of investors such as Menlo Ventures, Scale Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners, among others. Its total funding to date is $213 million. Observe.AI plans to accelerate its timeline toward an initial public offering, company spokespersons said.

Observe.AI’s platform comes at a time when two factors have converged in the contact center industry. Consumer expectations have increased, and technology investments are at record levels. However, brands have difficulty improving the customer experience and business outcomes. Even though $24 billion has been invested into industry technology, contact centers still have only 3% visibility into customer-agent interactions. This leads to an estimated $75 billion in annual lost revenue. In contrast, the Observe.AI platform captures full conversation visibility while also offering business-improving insights and machine-driven workflows, the company said.

SoftBank’s Priya Saiprasad

Priya Saiprasad is a partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers.

“Observe.AI has a transformative vision to deliver actionable and trustworthy AI that empowers digital-first businesses to create exceptional customer experiences. We believe the company has built an intelligent, flexible platform with endless use cases.”

This latest investment will fuel development of the next generation of Observe.AI’s product innovations. This includes expansion into harmonizing real-time with post-interaction agent coaching. It also means scaling the company’s go-to-market motion and driving continued geographical expansion into international markets.

Observe.AI Funding Validation

Observe.AI’s Swapnil Jain

Swapnil Jain is co-founder and CEO of Observe.AI. He said that the company has risen to meet this “unprecedented crossroads for the contact center industry.” The massive market is undergoing a once-in-a-generation transformation and investment in the right technologies will make or break business outcomes.

“This fresh round of funding is further validation that Observe.AI is uniquely positioned with our industry-leading product innovations and offerings, robust services expertise and partner ecosystem. We have an intimate understanding of and execution on the evolving needs at the intersection of AI and CX.”

The company has experienced record growth in two years. In September 2020, it raised $54 million in a  funding round led by Menlo Ventures. Next47 Ventures and NGP Capital also participated in that round. On the heels of announcing 300% year-over-year revenue growth, Observe.AI entered the omnichannel market with its 2021 acquisition of Scope.AI.

Partners

Partners play an integral role in this ongoing growth, the company said.

Observe.AI’s Jon Heaps

Jon Heaps is vice president of channels at Observe.AI. He said this record-setting funding means the company has only bolstered its dedication to partners.

“In the last year we really expanded the channel team significantly, and I’ve hired a lot of seasoned veterans. We will continue to expand our channel team as well as our direct sales team, and they will work in harmony with each other. So, there’s no such thing as channel versus direct. This is part of our whole go-to-market motion,” Heaps said.

He added that investing in the channel means more opportunity to garner more revenue, which only furthers Observe.AI’s goal to go public.