Conversica Delivers Record Growth and Innovation as the Leader in Conversational AI for Business
FOSTER CITY, CA—August 31, 2017—Conversica, the leader in conversational AI for business, today announced a record-breaking first half of the company’s fiscal year, with accelerated growth in bookings and revenue, major new capabilities in its AI platform, significant additions to the company’s management team, and continued acknowledgement of its leadership through industry awards and analyst recognition.
Conversica automates business conversations through virtual assistants powered by artificial intelligence. The company’s flagship AI Sales Assistant engages every lead in a human conversation to qualify more of them for sales, freeing sales reps to spend more time closing business. In the first half of 2017, more Conversica customers than ever employed their AI Sales Assistants to engage and qualify leads and create sales opportunities more quickly, efficiently and cost-effectively.
This year, Conversica continued its tremendous growth and celebrated many notable milestones:
- Increased annual recurring revenue by over 50 percent, with sales to new customers and significant expansions in existing accounts.
- Grew the customer base to over 1,200 companies, adding customers in a variety of industries, such as technology, financial services, education, hospitality and automotive. New customers include Box, New Relic, Microsoft, Northwestern Mutual, Salsa Labs and Avalara.
- Released significant new AI capabilities—including support for conversations via text/SMS messaging, new assistant languages (Spanish and French) and automated meeting scheduling—and processed more than 250 million messages.
- Expanded its executive management team with the addition of Dr. Sid J. Reddy as Chief Scientist, Brian Kaminski as Chief Customer Officer, and Victor Belfor as Senior Vice President of Business Development.
- Added key new employees in engineering, data science, operations, customer success and sales to grow the company to over 160 employees.
- Earned the Red Herring Top 100 award, distinguishing the company as one of the Top 100 private technology companies in North America.
- Named for a second time to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest growing private companies.
Conversica’s Sophisticated AI Sales Assistants Attract Customers Across Industries
Conversica increased its customer base this year across a diverse set of B2B and B2C industries, including technology, financial services, education and automotive, bringing the total roster of clients to more than 1,200, many of which added more salespeople to handle the increased flow of opportunities identified by their AI Sales Assistants.
“A record number of global enterprises across a dozen industry verticals chose Conversica’s category-leading AI solution, and they did so because of the incredible ROI they are able to achieve,” said Conversica CEO Alex Terry. “Conversica’s AI Sales Assistants continue to help salespeople across industries follow up on their leads far more effectively, and our AI Assistants are now deployed in other departments and communicating in multiple languages. Moreover, the recent additions we’ve made to our executive team will boost our pace of innovation, extend our reach and ensure that we continue to serve each of our customers well, even as we continue our accelerated growth.”
Notable new customers and those which significantly expanded their usage include:
- Epson, which generated millions in sales pipeline from their Conversica AI Assistant
- ScaleArc, which saw a 30x increase in influenced pipeline
- SecureAuth, which added $2M in new pipeline in less than eight months
- Top Hat, which achieved 200% ROI on Conversica-handled opportunities
“Our research reflects accelerated adoption and deployment of AI-based resources for marketing, sales and customer support activities,” explained Dan Miller, Lead Analyst and Founder, Opus Research. “Intelligent assistants, like those offered by Conversica, support measurably positive business outcomes by boosting productivity and lowering costs while supporting high levels of customer satisfaction.”
Conversica Unveils Enhancements to Industry-First AI Assistants
Conversica has expanded its Conversational AI platform with new capabilities and customer-requested features each month. Key enhancements include the ability to deploy AI Assistants with multiple names, titles, email addresses and phone numbers to conduct multiple conversations across multiple business functions, in multiple languages, across multiple communications channels.
- New Multiple Assistant Capabilities: Leveraging the experience and technology underpinning the company’s successful AI Sales Assistant, Conversica added AI assistants capable of automating important business conversations in service, finance, customer success and recruiting. Increasingly, organizations deploy a single Conversica platform that delivers multiple assistants with conversations optimized for separate business functions. Each assistant benefits from the training, experience, insight and results gained from the thousands of other assistants in the field across all customers, resulting in more engaging and helpful conversations than are possible in a stand-alone manner.
- New Conversations in Multiple Languages: Conversica’s AI Assistants now engage individuals in human-like conversations in English, Spanish and French and are intelligent enough to automatically switch languages mid-conversation when appropriate. Since business conversations occur in many different languages, even within a single country or region, Conversica AI Assistants now engage each individual in their preferred language. Conversica assistants are already trained on millions of human conversations to achieve an unprecedented level of accuracy and reliability, and the company has expanded its team of conversation designers and trainers with native speakers to develop new capabilities and ensure high levels of AI accuracy.
- New Communication Channels: Conversica added SMS/text messaging as the next communication channel for its AI Assistants. This feature allows assistants to communicate with leads via email and SMS, even switching channels mid-conversation to best satisfy the needs of the lead while maintaining compliance with regulations such as the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA). Each lead’s contact information and communication preference is always passed to the salesperson for appropriate follow-up and to the dozens of CRM and marketing automation solutions with which the company’s products are integrated.
Three New Executives Join Conversica’s Leadership Team
Conversica has made three key appointments to bolster its executive team, tapping industry veterans with public and private company experience to help lead the company through this period of accelerated growth. New appointments include:
- Dr. Sid J. Reddy, Chief Scientist. Reddy is a noted expert, author and speaker in the field of Natural Language Processing (NLP) and computational linguistics. He joins Conversica from Microsoft, where he was a Principal Applied Scientist. Prior to Microsoft, he founded an NLP lab at Northwestern University. He has designed, developed and contributed to dozens of NLP systems used in production in a wide array of use cases and industry verticals, including business intelligence, legal, healthcare, life sciences, and e-commerce.
- Brian Kaminski, Chief Customer Officer. Kaminski is an accomplished customer success expert with 20 years of experience rapidly scaling winning teams. Kaminski comes to Conversica from IBM, where he served as a worldwide client success executive and developed the strategy for customer success across IBM’s multi-billion-dollar SaaS portfolio. Prior to that he was Chief Customer Officer at Marin Software.
- Victor Belfor, Senior Vice President of Business Development. Belfor has more than 15 years of go-to-market strategy and execution experience and joins Conversica from OpenSesame, where he managed partnerships ranging from Oracle and SAP to Workday, Cornerstone and OnDemand. Prior to that he established the partnership programs for Ring Central, helping to accelerate growth prior to the successful IPO.
Additional Information
- Read press releases on new executives Dr. Sid J. Reddy, Brian Kaminski and Victor Belfor
- Access biographies and pictures of Conversica’s management team
- Review 30+ case studies and video case studies that explain deployment details and ROI results, published with customers in multiple industry verticals
- See Conversica’s conversational AI explained in this two-minute overview video
- Track milestones in the company’s history
- Hear Conversica speak at the upcoming Opus Research Intelligent Assistants Conference in San Francisco, September 18-19
About Conversica
Conversica is the leader in AI-powered business conversations and the only provider of AI-driven lead engagement software for marketing and sales organizations. The flagship Conversica® AI Sales Assistant helps companies find and secure customers more quickly and efficiently by automatically contacting, engaging, qualifying and following up with leads via natural, two-way conversations. Used by more than 1,000 companies worldwide, Conversica’s sales assistants are built on a proven AI platform integrating natural language processing (NLP), natural language generation (NLG), and machine learning (ML) capabilities and engage prospects over multiple communication channels and in multiple languages. Recognized by Gartner as a Cool Vendor, Conversica is a portfolio company of Providence Equity, Kennet Partners and Toba Capital and is headquartered in Foster City, California.
To learn more, visit conversica.com and follow the company on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
Contact:
Sara Black
Bospar
sara@bospar.com
213-618-1501
All Press Releases
- Conversica Names Bevi the Winner of the 2018 AI Assistant of the Year Contest
- Conversica Partners With Microsoft to Bring Conversational AI to Microsoft Dynamics 365
- Conversica Wins 2018 Awards for Applying Conversational AI to Automotive Customer Acquisition and Retention
- Conversica Will Demonstrate at 2018 NADA Show How Conversational AI Boosts Showroom Visits and Customer Retention
- Conversica to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Can Convert More Leads into Sales Opportunities at the LeadsCon Performance Marketing Conference
- Renowned Artificial Intelligence Expert Dr. Sid J. Reddy to Share Research and Insights at AVIOS Conversational Interaction Conference
- Conversational AI Leader Conversica Acquires Intelligens.ai, Accelerating Growth and Technology Leadership
- Conversica Named to CB Insights 2018 ‘AI 100’
- Conversica Voted Best Salesforce App at Dreamforce 17
- Conversica to Demonstrate Advances in Conversational AI for Business at Dreamforce 2017
- Conversica Chief Scientist to Share Insights on Artificial Intelligence at Venture Beat Summit and AI Expo
- Conversica Named to San Francisco Business Times ‘Fast 100’ List of Bay Area’s 100 Fastest-Growing Private Companies
- Conversica, an Oracle Partner, Now Deeply Integrated with Oracle’s Customer Experience Suite
- Conversica Powers Superhuman Lead Follow-Up at INBOUND 2017 This Week
- Conversica CEO to Share Insights on Artificial Intelligence and Conversational Commerce at Opus Research Intelligent Assistants Conference
- Conversica Delivers Record Growth and Innovation as the Leader in Conversational AI for Business
- Conversica Appoints Dr. Sid J. Reddy as Chief Scientist to Innovate and Scale Conversational AI Platform as Company Accelerates Growth
- Conversica Names Brian Kaminski Chief Customer Officer to Accelerate Value for Customers in the Midst of Dramatic Company Growth
- Conversica Appoints Victor Belfor Senior Vice President of Business Development to Accelerate Strategic Partnerships
- Conversica to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Can Convert More Leads into Sales Opportunities at the LeadsCon Connect to Convert Conference
- Conversica Named a Red Herring Top 100 Winner
- Conversica to Showcase at SiriusDecisions Conference How Utilizing Artificial Intelligence-Based Assistants Boosts Sales Pipeline and Marketing ROI
- Conversica to Present and Showcase Latest Artificial Intelligence-Based Sales Technology at Sales 3.0 Conference in San Francisco
- Americans Say Artificial Intelligence Will Increase Productivity, Free Up Spare Time and Ease Strain of Repetitive Tasks
- Conversica and Leading Customers to Reveal How Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Lead Engagement and Conversion at Marketo Marketing Nation Summit
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2017
- Auto Dealerships Lead All Other Industries in Effective Lead Follow-Up, Conversica Study Reveals
- Conversica to Showcase How Artificial Intelligence Is Used to Convert More Leads Into Customers at LeadsCon Las Vegas
- Conversica Customer and AI Champion at Talend to Present at B2B Content2Conversion Conference
- Conversica Recognized for Providing Best AI in the Enterprise
- Conversica Delivers Major Upgrades to AI-powered Business Conversations
- Conversica Wins 2017 Distinguished Marketing Award for Applying AI to Automotive Dealership Fixed Operations
- Auto Dealers Celebrate AI-Powered Internet Lead Engagement with Conversica, after Nearly 100 Years of Doing It the Hard Way
- Artificial Intelligence Innovator Conversica Raises $34 Million in Oversubscribed Series B
- Two-Thirds of Companies Fail to Effectively Follow Up on Inbound Sales Leads, New Research Reveals
- Conversica Powers Superhuman Lead Engagement at SiriusDecisions Technology Exchange This Week
- Conversica to Debut AI Service Assistant at Automotive Fixed Ops Conference
- Conversica to Debut Latest AI-Powered Sales Assistant at Dreamforce
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at Insurance Disrupted 2016 Conference on Innovative Technologies
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at LeadsCon, the Definitive Conference for Performance Marketers
- Conversica to Exhibit and Present at Digital Dealer 21 Conference & Exposition
- Conversica to Showcase Newest AI Sales Technology at Sales 2.0 Conference
- Conversica Recognized for Technology Leadership in Service Marketing
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Bears Fruit at Sales Machine Summit 2016
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant to Make Personal Appearance at CRM Evolution
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Visits the Sirius Decisions Summit This Week
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant is Appearing Again at the Marketo Marketing Nation Summit
- Research Finds Automotive Industry on Top in Lead Follow-Up Across Nine Industries
- Conversica Named a “Cool Vendor” by Gartner
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at AA-ISP Leadership Summit 2016
- Conversica Wins 2016 Automotive Website Award (AWA) for Sales Process
- Conversica Launches new AI-based Assistant for Automotive Service Departments
- Conversica’s Artificial Intelligence to Appear at NADA 2016 in Las Vegas
- Conversica’s AI-Powered Sales Assistant Will Be Engaging Leads at LeadsCon Las Vegas
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at CBT Automotive Conference & Exposition
- Survey Finds Extremely Poor Sales Lead Follow Up Across Nine Industries
- PCG Research Finds 200% Increase in Email Open Rates for Auto Dealers Using Conversica Lead Engagement Software
- Conversica to Exhibit and Speak at Digital Dealer 20 Conference & Exposition
- Conversica Ends a Record Year of Customer and Company Growth and Notable Industry Recognition
- Conversica Partners With Velocify to Help Customers Quickly and Effectively Engage Leads and Boost Conversion
- Conversica Announces Automotive Industry Advisory Board
- Conversica to Showcase Unique Automotive Lead Engagement at Digital Dealer19 Conference
- Study Finds Sales and Marketing Wasting 50% of Time and Money on Leads
- Conversica to Showcase Best Practices for Alignment of Sales and Marketing at Dreamforce
- Conversica AI to Make Personal Appearance at LeadsCon New York
- Conversica Names SaaS Veteran Jason Lund as New CFO
- Conversica Named 2015 CRM Market Rising Star by CRM Magazine
- Conversica Names SaaS Industry Veteran Alex Terry as New CEO
- Conversica Named Most Innovative and Overall Winner of 2015 NextGen Relationship Intelligence Award
- Conversica’s AI to make personal appearance at Salesforce World Tour in New York City
- Conversica Recommends Tips to Increase Inside Sales Effectiveness
- Ticketmaster Engineering Executive Joins Conversica to Grow Technology Team and Further Drive Innovation
- Conversica Announces Marketo Partnership and Integration
- Conversica Announces Major Sponsorship of AA-ISP to Help Advance the Profession of Inside Sales
- Former Serena Software Executive Carl Landers Joins Conversica as Chief Marketing Officer
- Conversica to Demonstrate Award-Winning Technology for Intelligent Lead Qualification at LeadsCon 2015
- Conversica Wins Most Innovative Company Award from LeadsCouncil
- Conversica Demonstrates Artificial Intelligence for Sales at SaaStr Escape Velocity Conference
- Conversica to Demonstrate Leading Auto Industry Lead Conversion Software at NADA 2015
- QuoteWizard Increases Engagement Rates to 40 Percent and Improves Lead Quality with Conversica
- Vern Fonk Closes 33 Percent of Internet Leads with Conversica
- Spring Venture Group Decreases Cost Per Lead Acquisition by 30 Percent with Conversica
- The Faulkner Organization Increases Qualified Showroom Traffic by 50 percent with Conversica
- Lead Conversion Landmines and How to Avoid Them
- Former DocuSign Executive joins Conversica as Vice President of Business Development
- Conversica Publishes Infographic on Bridging the Divide Between Marketing and Sales
- Conversica Launches Crush Your Quarter Promotion
- Conversica Now Available for the Salesforce1 Mobile App – Empowering Companies to Run Their Business from Their Phones
- Artificial Intelligence Technology is Changing How Marketing and Sales Organizations Interact with Leads
- Conversica Adds Two SaaS Industry Veterans to Board of Directors
- Sales Veteran Mike Grossman Joins Conversica as VP of Sales, Enterprise
- Home Rental Company Nets US$1.5 Million Annual Revenue Increase After Using Conversica for Three Months
- Conversica Completes Major Rebranding Effort in Less Than Two Months For Less Than US$100,000
- AVA.ai Announces Name Change to Conversica
- Why You Should Stop Using Autoresponders : A Better Solution Exists
- Marketing Veteran Michael E. Donner Joins AVA.ai (now Conversica) as SVP, CMO
- QuoteWizard & AVA.ai (now Conversica) Unveil Automated Virtual Assistant for Insurance Agents
- Kennet Partners announces US$16 Million investment in AVA.ai (now Conversica) and names Mark A. Bradley as CEO
- AVA (now Conversica) from AVA.ai Wins 2013 PCG Spotlight Award