The British Business Bank announced a £15 million investment into PolyAI, a key player in enterprise conversational AI, as part of an $86 million Series D round. The round has reportedly been co-led by Georgian, Hedosophia, Khosla Ventures, with additional investment from NVentures (NVIDIA’s VC arm), Sands Capital, Squarepoint Ventures, Citi Ventures, and Point72 Ventures.
PolyAI builds AI voice agents that can hold “natural, human-like conversations and handle complex customer service calls.”
PolyAI’s agents are able to understand intent, handle “multi-step tasks like authentication, bookings or payments, integrate with enterprise systems, and deliver high-quality service at scale.”
This improves customer experience while “reducing operational costs.”
According to a Total Economic Impact study by Forrester, PolyAI customers achieve 391% return on investment, including “an average of $10.3 million in savings, improved customer and employee experience, stronger insights, and increases in profits.”
The company has enterprise customers across “hospitality, retail, logistics, and financial services in 45 languages and more than 25 countries.”
Clients include the likes of FedEx, Marriott, Unicredit and Foot Locker.
The funding will be used to “develop the proprietary technology behind PolyAI’s Agent Studio, with the goal of helping enterprises use every customer conversation to learn and grow.”
Leandros Kalisperas, Chief Investment Officer at British Business Bank, said that the UK has all the “right components to be a world leader in AI, with strong technological talent and the venture market to back it up.”
Kalisperas added that for the UK to realise its AI ambitions, we must support fast growing AI companies like PolyAI by “providing them with the capital they need to succeed and grow here in the UK.”
They also noted that this will help to ensure they “benefit from their growth and success.”
Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, said that they are investing in companies like PolyAI so they “can grow the economy and create good jobs.”
They further noted that they are backing, combined with their universities, private investment, and their AI Growth Zones “makes the UK one of the best places in the world to build an AI start up.”
Reeves also stated that by doubling eligibility thresholds for enterprise tax incentives, introducing “a new three year Stamp Duty holiday for firms that list in the UK, and maintaining the lowest rate of corporation tax in the G7, we are going further to attract the companies of the future.”
George Mills, Investment Director at British Business Bank, said that PolyAI is one of the UK’s homegrown AI initiatives.
Mills also mentioned that the company has “demonstrated impressive results for its clients and its platform has vast cross-sector potential, which anyone who has spent hours on hold will know.”
They further stated that they are pleased to be partnering “with them in their next phase and excited to see their continued success.”
Nikola Mrkšić, CEO and Co-Founder of PolyAI, said that this Series D financing is proof of the industry’s confidence in their “abilities and the potential of their technology.”
Mrkšić also noted that this investment will kick start “the next stage of our growth cycle and ensure that they can continue to deliver best-in-class technology for enterprises looking to transform their customer and employee experience.”
As noted in the update, the British Business Bank is the UK government’s economic development bank.
Established in November of 2014, its mission is to “drive sustainable growth and prosperity across the UK and to enable the transition to a net zero economy, by improving access to finance for smaller businesses.”
Its remit is to design, deliver and efficiently “manage UK-wide smaller business access to finance programs for the UK government.”
It is a development bank wholly owned by HM Government. British Business Bank plc and its subsidiaries are “not banking institutions and do not operate as such.”
With the exception of BBB Investment Services Ltd they “are not authorised or regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the Financial Conduct Authority.”
BBB Investment Services Limited is “authorised and regulated” by the Financial Conduct Authority.
As stated in a release, PolyAI is transforming customer experience with AI agents that help enterprises “show up as the best versions of themselves in every conversation.”