Washington, D.C. venture capital fund Revolution Growth picked is leading a $56 million funding round for a Massachusetts-based artificial intelligence company. Interactions is the first investment by the Donn Davis, Steve Case and Ted Leonsis-managed fund since closing the $525 million Revolution Growth III fund in June.
"They've been on our radar for a while," Revolution partner Steve Murray told DC Inno in an interview. "I've been on Interactions board for almost three years, and kept in touch when I joined Revolution in January."
Revolution Growth makes large investments of around $25 million to $50 million. Murray said that the $25 million floor was "more or less the right number" in terms of Revolution's contribution. The fund targeting relatively few companies, looking for potential disruptors of major industries. The latest fund has a notable amount of extra room for investments after oversubscribing well above its original $450 million goal.
Interactions applies its AI technology to the world of customer service. It offers adaptive software capable of understanding regular human speech to help customers who reach out to a company with complaints or questions. The 12-year-old company's tech was bolstered after acquiring the Watson AI tech and team from AT&T in 2014, and it has signed on big-name clients like Hyatt, Best Western and Humana, attracting $167 million in funding including the latest round. and growing more than 100 percent every year.
"The customer care market has not undergone much change in a long time," Murray said. "That's really the play here. Their solution is cost effective and can really scale up."
