Kore.ai, startup building conversational AI, secures $150 mn in funding

The investment was led by FTV Capital and had participation from chip giant Nvidia

Kore.ai, a conversational artificial intelligence (AI) company, said on Tuesday it had raised $150 million in funding for business growth and innovation.

The strategic growth investment was led by FTV Capital, a sector-focused growth equity investor, along with participation from chip giant Nvidia and existing investors such as Vistara Growth, Sweetwater PE, NextEquity, Nicola and Beedie. The company headquartered in Orlando, the United States, has research and development operations in Hyderabad. It did not comment on the valuation in the funding round.

“As we look to enhance our GenAI-powered innovations and drive wider adoption across a variety of market segments, we are pleased to have the backing of FTV Capital,” said Raj Koneru, founder and chief executive officer of Kore.ai, referring to generative AI technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, and audio.

“It has a significant experience in our space and invaluable connections across the enterprise to augment our exciting growth trajectory.”

Kapil Venkatachalam, partner at FTV Capital, said the investment firm evaluated advanced AI platforms and Kore.ai stood out with its proven enterprise-grade platform capabilities, focus on research, established global customer base, and a clear path to profitability.

Research firm Gartner estimates the conversational AI market will reach $377 billion in revenue by 2032, up from $66 billion in 2023. Growth will be based on demand for better customer experience, streamlined business operations and innovative GenAI applications.

Kore.ai said it provides an enterprise-grade no-code platform to help companies in their business interactions with AI driving significant revenue and cost savings. The platform has purpose-built workflows and configurable tools that allow companies to craft custom solutions for multiple industries.

“Our deep technology expertise and market understanding put us in a prime position to take advantage of the momentum" in AI, said Koneru.

Kore.ai’s customers include PNC Bank, AT&T, Cigna, Coca-Cola, Airbus and Roche. The company automates 450 million interactions a day for about 200 million consumers and two million enterprise users worldwide. In addition to domestic growth, Kore.ai’s growth has been fueled by rising demand from emerging markets in Asia Pacific, Europe, LatAm, and the Middle East.

Krutrim, a generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) venture co-founded by Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, recently announced that it has achieved unicorn status — a term used to describe startups valued at $1 billion or above — following its inaugural funding round. Another Indian GenAI startup Sarvam AI has unveiled OpenHathi, the first Hindi large language model. Sarvam recently raised $41 million in a Series A round led by Lightspeed and supported by Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures.