Uniphore raises $140 million as demand for enterprise AI increases

2020 sped up digital imperatives for companies as it put focus directly on AI and automation to drive that transformation of what experts agree is projected to be a $500 bn-plus market opportunity

Uniphore, the conversational service automation (CSA) company,  has raised $140 million in Series D funding, bringing the total funds invested in the company to $210 million. This latest round of financing was led by Sorenson Capital Partners.  It includes additional new investors from Europe and the Middle East, Serena Capital and Sanabil Investments, and strategic investor, Cisco Investments. Further expanding their previous investments in Uniphore, March Capital Partners, National Grid Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Iron Pillar Fund, and Sistema Capital also participated in the Series D offering.

The new round of funding is Uniphore’s largest to date. The funding will be used to extend Uniphore’s technology and market leadership in AI, automation and machine learning across the enterprise. This will also include a focus on video-based AI applications stemming from Uniphore’s acquisition of Emotion Research Labs earlier this year as well as applications in Trust, Security and RPA (robotic process automation) markets.

Given the rapid digital transformation happening across the enterprise, the need for automated and intelligent solutions to help drive new business models has never been greater.  

“We saw this years ago and have been delivering innovation to areas such as contact centres, to enable better customer experiences,” said Umesh Sachdev, CEO and co-founder of Uniphore. The company has dual headquarters in both Palo Alto, California and Chennai.

With its recent acquisitions of RPA and video AI technology, Uniphore can deliver a conversational service automation platform for the modern enterprise, combining conversational AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) across voice and video-based engagements.

“This injection of capital and new addition to our board leadership will fuel our growth, position us to outpace the competition and help transform business through dramatically improved customer experiences,” said Sachdev.

With the market for digital transformation accelerating, Uniphore has announced several strategic partners and customers this past year. These wins essentially enable Uniphore solutions to empower and improve hundreds of millions of customer engagements with its AI and automation software. Uniphore’s solutions help organizations manage and analyze contact centre engagements, providing a better customer experience, ultimately driving better business results.

2020 accelerated digital imperatives for every company. It put the focus directly on AI and automation to drive that transformation of what experts agree is projected to be more than a $500 billion market opportunity. As evidence of this trend, market data shows organizations increased their reliance on contact centre agents to service customer needs remotely in the wake of the global pandemic and regional stay-at-home orders.

Uniphore has capitalized on this momentum over the past 12 months and expects to have $100 million in contracted annual recurring revenue (ARR) in fiscal 2022 based on a forecast of continued hypergrowth.

“As a leading investor in transformational enterprise technology, we were very impressed by the Uniphore team and what they have been able to do for customers and the broader market", said Rob Rueckert, managing partner at Sorenson Capital.

In the last year, Uniphore won significant deals including some of the world’s largest telecom providers, insurance companies and financial service organizations. It also won customer contracts with customer experience (CX) providers including Tech Mahindra, NTT DATA, Sitel, Firstsource, and WNS. These deals and others can support over 75,000 customer service agents who can handle approximately 160 million engagements every month. Uniphore also expanded its employee headcount last year with the addition of more than 100 new employees globally, including former PwC Partner Stéphane Berthier as its chief financial officer. It is on track to hire more than ­­300 employees this next fiscal year.

“Contact centres are focused on providing excellent customer service and efficiency through AI and automation,” said Stephane Berthier, Uniphore CFO. “With more than 1.15 million agents employed globally as well as increased focus on agent support and digital customer service, the market opportunity is stronger than ever before.”