PolyAI voice assistants answer calls for companies like FedEx, Marriott hotels, and Whitbread PLC.

PolyAI, a provider of human sounding voice assistants for enterprises, announced its $40 million Series B round led by Georgian with participation from Twilio Ventures as well as existing investors (Khosla Ventures, Point72 Ventures, Amadeus Capital Partners). (CISION PR NEWSWIRE)

PolyAI’s voice assistants fully resolve anywhere between 40-90% of all incoming calls while increasing customer satisfaction scores by up to 40%, the company said in a statement.

“Previous attempts at contact center automation have been disappointing,” said PolyAI CEO Nikola Mrkšić. “Conversational IVRs have made callers guess which keywords they have to use – and even then, have consistently failed to understand what they’re saying. At PolyAI, we’re dedicated to developing systems that understand every customer, regardless of what they say and how they say it, and making these systems accessible and affordable for enterprises to use.”

 “The experience of talking to a PolyAI voice assistant is so good, it’s just like talking to a human,” said Emily Walsh, Lead Investor at Georgian. “It is a breakthrough in automated customer service to have voice assistants that can be customized to a specific brand. We’re seeing impressive adoption of PolyAI’s solutions as a result, in particular as firms struggle with staffing shortages in customer-facing roles.”

PolyAI is a spinout from the University of Cambridge.

According to Tech Crunch, which quoted PolyAI CEO Nikola Mrkšić, the company is valued at $300 million post-money, and the latest round brings the total amount raised by the company to $70 million.

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