PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 12, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Machine learning startup Solvvy announced today that it raised $4.5 million in seed funding led by True Ventures, with participation from top institutional investors Pear Ventures (formerly Pejman Mar Ventures), Carnegie Mellon University, Signatures Capital, Investment Group of Santa Barbara (IGSB) and angel investors including Dan Rose and Hamid Barkhordar.
The Bay Area-based company was founded by Mehdi Samadi and Justin Betteridge, leading experts in machine learning and natural language processing, in partnership with Mahesh Ram, a successful SaaS entrepreneur. The core technology is a result of seven years of research conducted by Samadi and Betteridge, who met while pursuing PhDs in artificial intelligence at Carnegie Mellon University.
"By combining advanced machine learning technology and natural language sciences, we make a true self-service platform instantly available for the enterprise," said Samadi, named by Forbes as one of the "30 Under 30 In Enterprise Technology" in 2015. "Our algorithms learn from every successful interaction and deliver specific, pinpoint solutions to answer natural language inputs. Solvvy continues to learn and get smarter every day, creating a powerful network effect."
The company released its first public product, Solvvy for Support, earlier this year after extensive validation with leading companies. Solvvy for Support helps companies answer a large number of incoming support requests without human intervention. At the time of ticket submission, users state their problems using everyday language and Solvvy surfaces precise answers to resolve the request.
"The future of business interactions is intelligent self-service," said Solvvy CEO Ram, who led GlobalEnglish's sale to Pearson PLC for more than $100 million in 2012. "Customers of every business have high expectations — they demand immediate, accurate responses to their issues. These customers want a conversational interface to express problems and receive accurate solutions immediately without having to wait hours or days for an agent reply. This was simply not possible before Solvvy."
Companies like Upwork, DoubleDutch, TaskRabbit and Amazon's Alexa.com rely on its deep learning solution to reduce customer support costs and improve the customer experience, across all support channels (web, chat, mobile, etc.).
"Solvvy is the most advanced self-service product on the market," said Upwork's Director of Customer Experience Joe Wang. "We tried other providers but chose Solvvy because its strong technology actually works and it requires zero work to get started. Solvvy's application of machine learning makes customers happier and significantly decreases support costs. It's the best investment a customer service executive can make."
Solvvy credits its early success to the technology's rapid implementation and ease-of-use. The intelligent self-service solution requires zero engineering work from customers and automatically trains itself using historical interaction data. Customers often deploy the software within days of working with Solvvy and begin realizing financial gains the day Solvvy is implemented.
"It's rare that you find a team with such a unique combination of deep technical expertise and business understanding," says Puneet Agarwal, partner at True Ventures and board member at Solvvy. "They have made exciting strides to solve a difficult technology problem and deliver immediate value for any business. Solvvy has great potential to lead and evolve within the CRM market."
About Solvvy
Solvvy is a machine learning startup reinventing the customer experience. Its first product, Solvvy for Support, delivers a better self-service platform that improves customer satisfaction and decreases costs for businesses. This intelligent NLP solution is the first customer support SaaS application based on Solvvy's powerful answer graph technology. Solvvy deploys in days and delivers immediate financial returns for business. Solvvy is already trusted by leading brands including UpWork, Alexa (Amazon), TaskRabbit, DoubleDutch and others. The company was founded by esteemed technologists Mehdi Samadi and Justin Betteridge and serial entrepreneur/CEO, Mahesh Ram. Solvvy is fortunate to be backed by leading Silicon Valley investors.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With five funds and capital under management in excess of $1.3 billion, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today's fastest growing markets. With a mission to make the world a better place for entrepreneurs, True encourages each founder's vision and has built resources to empower the employees, families and communities of its portfolio companies. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 200 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the current True portfolio has helped create over 8,500 jobs. To learn more about True Ventures, visit www.trueventures.com.
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SOURCE Solvvy
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