Conversational AI startup Cognigy announced that it closed a $44 million series B funding round led by Insight Partner, bringing the company’s total raised to over $50 million to date. Düsseldorf-based startup’s Co-founder and CEO Philip Heltewig said that the proceeds will be invested in accelerating customer growth, creating new partnerships, and continuing to improve Cognigy’s AI platform.
The startup was founded in 2016 in Düsseldorf, Germany, and provides a low-code platform that enables customers to create text and voice virtual agents. Users can manage conversational flow of chatbots, and develop experiences across a range of channels including the web, WhatsApp, Amazon Alexa, and more.
The ever-growing presence of smartphones and messaging apps in daily life has contributed to the increased adoption of conversation technologies. According to a survey by Accenture, 56 percent of companies say that conversational bots and other experiences are driving disruption in their industry. That messaging apps are here to stay shows a Twilio study revealing that 9 out of 10 consumers would like to use messaging to contact a business.
Cognigy’s spokesperson told VentureBeat via email:
“Heltewig and former communications engineer Sascha Poggemann recognized a strong need for enterprises to adopt mature language technologies five years ago. With their combined knowledge in enterprise software and communication, they built Cognigy to what it’s known for today: an AI-first, self-service automation solution for large enterprises, especially in customer service.”
Integration options
Cognigy enables customers to retain conversation context across channels and allow handovers between different interaction points. A module lets customers tune bots by reviewing the natural language understanding (NLU) results and providing feedback, with an intent review system that delivers assistance and NLU training. Cognigy can also be integrated with NLU engines including Google Dialogflow, Microsoft LUIS, and IBM Watson. The platform also works with existing live chat tools like RingCentral Engage Digital, Avaya Oceana, and Genesys Pure Cloud.
The spokesperson said:
“Cognigy [acts] as an intelligent AI-powered middleware that can engage with customers and employees on the one hand, while being deeply integrated with enterprise systems and robotics on the other.
“Our customers use this technology for a broad range of use cases, ranging from human resources virtual assistants to product recommendations and intelligent contact center [platforms]. The recurring pattern is end-to-end automation, with deep system integration; a conversational interface — regardless of the channel — is only truly useful if it can actually engage in a transaction.”
