The CEO of the startup confirmed this week that the tech startup Netomi has completed a $110 million Series C funding round. The round was led by Accenture Ventures.
Founded approximately a decade ago, Netomi leverages artificial intelligence to optimize customer service for companies such as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Paramount, and the sports betting platform DraftKings, according to its CEO, Puneet Mehta, who spoke on the sidelines of the Reuters AI Summit in New York on Tuesday.
Recent technological breakthroughs in large language models, exemplified by ChatGPT, have significantly raised market expectations for the ability of AI customer service agents to autonomously resolve complex customer issues without human intervention.
Mehta stated that California-based Netomi is applying such cutting-edge technologies, integrating AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
For instance, using this technology, Netomi can now answer more detailed and nuanced complex questions within the chat customer service of the United Airlines mobile app, such as "Can I sit in an emergency exit row with my pet dog?"
Mehta indicated that users are increasingly seeking help for more than just simple, basic queries; a growing number of requests are of medium complexity or higher, which is precisely Netomi's business focus.
Justin Wender, a General Partner at investor WndrCo, revealed that the company's valuation following this round has not been disclosed. The total funding raised by Netomi since its inception now exceeds $160 million.
As part of the Series C funding arrangement, media entrepreneur and WndrCo Managing Partner Jeffrey Katzenberg has joined Netomi's board of directors.
Accenture has also entered into a collaboration with Netomi. Wender stated that Accenture will train hundreds of its employees to master Netomi's technology, assisting corporate clients in deploying upgraded AI customer service agents.
Wender added on the sidelines of the summit that Adobe Ventures also participated in this Series C round. Adobe is collaborating with Netomi to integrate AI customer service functionality into websites built on its platform.
Mehta said Netomi currently has approximately 170 employees. The newly raised capital will be used for deploying customer projects and research and development.
The company's future goal is to deploy AI customer service agents capable of proactively predicting and resolving customer issues before they escalate, and automatically taking appropriate actions.