Ujet, a startup that makes software for contact centers, raised a $76 million Series D as investors seek ways to automate the more than $40 billion industry with generative AI.
The round valued Ujet at $500 million, Bloomberg reported, slightly up from $455 million in a 2020 Series C, according to PitchBook data. Both rounds were led by Sapphire Ventures and included participation from GV, Kleiner Perkins and Citi Ventures.
Investors and market leaders see the potential to disrupt the customer service industry with generative AI. CRM leader Salesforce has committed $1 billion to invest in AI companies and recently rolled out a suite of AI agents to assist customer service and sales teams.
But while AI is generating investment in the segment, not everyone agrees that fully embracing the technology is the right path—including Ujet’s Co-CEO Vasili Triant. During pitches to investors, attempts to focus on non-AI features were often met with frustration, Triant said.
“We were highlighting the new engine we were building, but they were really interested in the display and technology inside the cockpit,” he said. “They really wanted the message and focus to be different.”
Triant was recently promoted to Co-CEO alongside founding CEO Anand Janefalkar.
Ujet offers an AI call center service for enterprise clients. The platform uses AI to flag trends like shared customer complaints. and to automate certain processes. Triant said that the startup has been using AI tools for years and had to sharpen its messaging on generative AI technology.
VC investment in the CRM segment has stalled out as corporations cut back on software spending, according to PitchBook data. This year, CRM startups are on track to raise their lowest amount of capital since 2018, after raising just $4.6 billion in the first six months of 2024.
AI has helped deliver some of the segment’s largest rounds. DevRev, an AI customer support and product development startup, raised a $100 million Series A in August from Khosla Ventures. In June Cognigy raised a $100 million Series C for its AI customer service platform from Insight Partners and Eurazeo Growth.
Triant said the path forward for CRM startups shouldn’t exclusively revolve around AI. Instead, he suggested building strong platforms that can leverage AI without relying entirely on the technology. He said that AI agents aren’t ready for primetime, and that he’s wary of what he sees as untested technology.
“I’ve never seen an interest around a new product that has no proof points that is so high,” he said. “People just want to start consuming it, yet there’s little to no reference around what all the benefits are.”
Featured image by Luis Alvarez/Getty Images
