FrontdeskAI, the leading developer of artificial intelligence (AI) assistants for small businesses, and the fastest adopted AI assistant in the wellness market, today announced it has closed an additional $2 million in funding, bringing its total seed funding to $4.2 million.
This pre-series A round of funding was led by pi Ventures, India’s first Applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT and Blockchain focused early stage venture fund. The funds will help FrontdeskAI accelerate product development, increase customer acquisition and investigate new vertical markets.
Previous seed rounds include $1.1 million in June 2018, led by Blue Pointe Capital and $1.1 million in November 2018, led by Speciale Invest. pi Ventures’ partner, Abishek Surendran, will join the FrontdeskAI board that already includes BluePointe Ventures managing partner, Sandeep Sardana, and Speciale Invest managing partner, Vishesh Rajaram.
FrontdeskAI creates AI
assistants specifically for small businesses that rely
on appointment-based products and
services for their revenue. The company’s current AI assistant portfolio serves
the wellness market including the spa, salon and fitness industries. The
wellness market is globally valued at $4.2 trillion and is growing twice as
fast as global economic growth. FrontdeskAI customer
acquisition is currently growing 17% month on month, subscription revenue is
growing 25% month on month, and churn is amongst the lowest in the industry at
less than 3% per month.
FrontdeskAI
assistants help manage appointments, class scheduling, rescheduling, all forms
of customer and service specific enquiries, and can execute highly targeted and
intelligent marketing campaigns. They are powered by a set of proprietary
algorithms, a proprietary database of B2C natural language interactions, and
knowledge graphs. Over time, they build a rich source of information about
customer requirements, preferences and usage patterns. By tapping into the
FrontdeskAI knowledge graph, the AI assistants are expert and up and running
immediately on deployment. To create human empathy, FrontdeskAI provides a
second layer of intelligence comprising human trainers to groom the AI
assistant to speak in the style and tone of the customer brand. The AI
assistant becomes independent over time building knowledge and experience from
all its interactions.
Srivatsan
Laxman, CEO, FrontdeskAI, said “We are laser focused on developing affordable
and easy-to- use AI assistants for small businesses. The market
traction we have already achieved is exciting. Our customers report a 30% increase
in revenue, 20% increase in new client registrations, and a significant
reduction in class drop-outs. With the additional funding and the
partnership with pi Ventures we are now in a position to
deepen our IP and competitive barriers to market entry.”
Abishek Surendran, Partner, pi Ventures, said, “We are excited about partnering with FrontdeskAI
which has developed a world class AI assistant for the small and medium
enterprise market. Their deep learning-based AI engine
means that companies can provide superior customer experiences at very low
costs. We look forward to supporting Srivatsan and the FrontdeskAI leadership
team to accelerate and expand upon the market advantage they have created.”
About
FrontdeskAI Founded in 2017 and
headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, FrontdeskAI creates AI solutions for
the un-sung heroes of the global economy – the small businesses.
FrontdeskAI has democratized the AI market by bringing affordable and tailored
solutions to main street.
The
company is the fastest adopted AI solution for the spa, salon and fitness
industries. Embodied in ‘Sasha’, the most advanced AI powered
assistant for small business, FrontdeskAI solutions deliver high impact
productivity, efficiency, revenue and customer retention advantages within
weeks of deployment.
About FrontdeskAI founders:
Srivatsan Laxman Ph.D., co-founder and CEO, is an expert in
the field of artificial intelligence, information retrieval and data privacy.
Prior to FrontdeskAI, he founded Scibler which developed an iOS mobile AI
assistant to manage appointments directly from email conversations and calendar
updates. He also spent seven years in the Machine Learning & Optimization
group at Microsoft Research.
Supriya Rao Ph.D., co-founder and CTO, has over 15
years’ experience building intelligent systems including developing natural
language processing-based business intelligence solutions at Strand
Life Sciences, and designing surveillance computer vision-based video
products for Honeywell Technology Solutions.
About pi Ventures, it is India’s first Applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT and Blockchain focused early stage venture fund. pi is a $33 Million fund based in Bangalore, India, and invests around $1 million per startup. pi Ventures focuses on healthcare, logistics, retail, fin-tech and enterprise sectors.
Last November, NIRAMAI Health Analytix, a deep tech powered health technology startup, had raised about ₹50 crore in funding from Pi Ventures and others.
Backed by some of the leading entrepreneurs globally as well as IFC of World Bank group, pi Ventures brings hands-on product and entrepreneurial experience to the India venture investing ecosystem.