UJET has concluded its Series D funding round, securing another $76MN of investment.
With this funding, UJET plans to further its development of generative AI (GenAI) technologies for the midmarket contact center.
Founding CEO Anand Janefalkar will lead the effort, scaling the vendor’s product and engineering efforts to facilitate the next stage of its growth.
Meanwhile, former UJET COO Vasili Triant will step into the co-CEO role to bolster UJET’s overall operations, which will involve accelerating its channel distribution and strategic alliances.
UJET is well positioned within the CCaaS space to use GenAI as the accelerator. After all, thanks to its close relationship with Google, the vendor enjoys unique access to the cloud giant’s AI teams and resources, with the two brands partnering closely together on joint innovation for the contact center and customer experience markets.
With this AI muscle, Janefalkar aims to support contact centers in moving beyond GenAI experiments and chatbot replacement initiatives to make long-lasting, “leapfrog” CX improvements.
“Human-sounding conversations alone are no longer sufficient, as people now regularly communicate via chat or voice conversations overlaid with rich media,” said Janefalkar.
“With generative AI, we can transform these conversations into high bandwidth visual and contextual interactions – the same way we all interact with friends and family – while offering fluid transitions between virtual and human agents, depending on complexity, urgency, and empathetic themes.”
Many other CCaaS companies will claim to be cooking up similar innovations. Yet, in addition to Google AI, UJET has differentiators in how it can support AI deployments.
UJET: Differentiative In Its AI Approach
Most vendors fixate on features when engaging with CCaaS buyers. But UJET changes the conversation. It asks: what outcome do you want for your customers?
By taking this outcome-oriented approach, UJET steers clear of marketing jargon and encourages its clients to think about the customer journey, friction points, and critical engagement drivers.
As the new Co-CEO Triant previously told CX Today: “What we’re doing at UJET is changing that conversation and then bringing in technology that’s adaptable to those outcomes.
“We’ve developed unique capabilities in our platform that don’t exist elsewhere, enabling both agents and customers to interact more naturally and effectively.”
Perhaps the best example of that uniqueness is in the design of the UJET Contact Center Platform itself. Indeed, it has a mobile-centric architecture, enabling cross-channel contact center experiences where customers and agents can exchange text, images, and audio messages.
Now, with those different channels and modalities, add AI into the mix and contact centers can orchestrate customer experiences that seamlessly blend live and virtual agents. That vision is exciting and has perhaps unsurprisingly caught the imagination of investors.
UJET: Differentiative In the Midmarket
Across many enterprise tech subsets, providers typically split into two camps. The first serves large enterprises with all-encompassing suites. The second offers cost-efficient point solutions to SMBs.
That often leaves midmarket businesses with a tough decision: shall we overpay for the suite or spend significant resources piecing together point solutions?
Some vendors will reach out to the midmarket. But, after securing their first couple of enterprise contracts, they’ll likely start chasing more, and – over time – their positioning often changes entirely.
Recognizing and fighting back against this trend, HubSpot has surged in CRM. Now, UJET is doing the same in CCaaS.
Moreover, as Baker Johnson, CMO of UJET, previously told CX Today:
“Our maturing platform and AI capabilities make us extremely appealing and competitive in the midmarket, which is burdened by bolt-ons, point solutions, and cumulative costs.”
Finally, it’s critical to note that UJET is a long-time CCaaS player. It’s not warming up with the midmarket for an enterprise play down the road. Instead, it understands the space and what it takes to deliver a seamless CCaaS deployment.
UJET: Differentiative In Its Channel Strategy
CCaaS vendors often overpromise and underdeliver. That’s one reason many customers are switching providers, a trend bookmarked by Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research.
“With the conclusion of many three- or four-year COVID contracts, companies are reassessing their vendors,” he said on his YouTube channel.
To avoid losing customers, providers must establish close relationships with their channel partners, set the correct expectations, and lay the foundation for trusting partnerships.
That’s why UJET aims to distance itself from the stretched channel partner strategies common in CCaaS, which have become scattered in their messaging and priorities.
Instead, it has fixated on building tight partnerships with three US-based juggernaut Technology Service Distributors (TSD): Avant, Telarus, & Intelisys.
While this strategy is in its initial phases, UJET claims it’s carrying significant momentum and helping it maximize the impact of its available resources.
UJET: Disruptive In Its CCaaS Proposition
The CCaaS market is increasingly competitive, with several new entrants.
Yet, UJET has taken significant strides to increase its allure. Last year, it recorded over a 40 percent growth rate, far above the average in an industry where many competitors are battling to sustain current business levels.
In part, UJET’s success is because of the branding boost it has enjoyed through its Google relationship and positive word-of-mouth (just look at G2).
However, it’s also a result of the unique approach UJET has taken to develop CCaaS technologies, work with underserved market segments, and establish fruitful channel partnerships.
To learn more about UJET and its CCaaS platform, visit UJET.
