Berlin-based Parloa has raised $350 million in Series D funding from existing investors, valuing the six-year-old customer service AI startup at $3 billion. The round comes just eight months after the company raised $120 million at a $1 billion valuation.
The new round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from returning backers, including EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable Capital, and Mosaic Ventures.
Parloa is one of many startups developing AI agents that promise to automate the kind of customer service work previously handled by human representatives and help desk staff.
Malte Kosub, Parloa’s co-founder and CEO, doesn’t seem fazed by the competition, largely because he doesn’t believe this is a “winner-take-all” category. “In the end, it is one of the biggest opportunities that has ever existed in software,” he told TechCrunch.
But it’s not just the size of the market that gives Kosub confidence about Parloa’s ability to win. He pointed to the startup’s massive fundraise as a sign that it could be among the top leaders in the space. “There are a lot of companies out there, but you need to look at the scale and the amount of funding they got,” he said. “The number of competitors is decreasing significantly.”
Parloa’s AI agents are already answering calls for large enterprise customers, which include Allianz, Booking.com, HealthEquity, SAP, Sedgwick, and Swiss Life, but the CEO says the goal is to do more than just build software that “picks up the phone.”
The company will invest a significant portion of its new capital into building a “multi-model, contextual experience” that will allow personalized AI agents to recognize a customer’s identity and specific needs, whether they reach out via an app, a website, or a phone call.
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