Conversica

2007: The company was founded by Ben Brigham in Bellingham, Washington as AutoFerret.com. The company initially produced a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) product, targeted at automotive dealerships. This soon expanded to lead generation, and then lead validation and qualification. The AI for which Conversica is known today was born out of a need to follow-up on and filter out low-quality leads, and in time it was clear that this was where the real value of the product lay. The focus of the company shifted toward this automated lead engagement technology.

2010: The Company started commercially selling AVA, the first Automated Virtual Assistant for sales, and the company name is changed to AVA.ai®. Early customers for AVA are automotive dealerships. and subsequent history of the company has been iteration and refinement of the AI-lead interaction. As the company moved away from generating leads themselves, and providing the CRM themselves, it became necessary to integrate with existing CRMs and Marketing Automation platforms, such as DealerSocket, VinSolutions and Salesforce.

2013: Company raises $16m Series A funding,[4] lead by Kennet Partners, names Mark Bradley as CEO of AVA.ai. Headquarters move from Bellingham, Washington to Foster City, California. Other key executives joining the business include David Marod (Automotive Sales) and William Webb-Purkis (Product Management). Expands sales office in Kansas City, Missouri.

2014: Company changes name from AVA.ai to Conversica.[5]

2015: Alex Terry joins Conversica as CEO.[6] Other key executives joining the business include Jason Lund (CFO[7]), Dr. Werner Koepf (SVP Engineering[8]). Business expands to include material number of customers in additional industry verticals, including technology, education, and financial services.

2016: Company raises $34m Series B funding,[9] lead by Providence Strategic Growth. Conversica launches second type of IVA - a Customer Success Assistant to help drive expansion revenue from existing customers.

2017: Conversica expands intelligent automation platform and IVAs to support additional communication channels (e-mail and SMS text messaging) and additional communication languages. Conversica opens new technology center of excellence in Seattle, Washington to expand AI and Machine Learning capabilities.[10] Dr. Sid Reddy joins Conversica as Chief Scientist.[11]

2018: Company raises $31m Series C funding,[12][3][13] lead by Providence Strategic Growth. Conversica acquires Intelligens.ai, providing a regional presence in Latin America with an office in Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.[14] Launches AI-powered Admissions Assistant for Higher Education industry.[15] Rashmi Vittal joins Conversica as CMO.[16]

2019: Conversica was selected by Fast Company magazine as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative AI Companies in the World,[17] and was named Marketo's Technology Partner of the Year,.[18] The company officially expanded into the EMEA region with the opening of a London office.[19] As of August 2019, Conversica has over 50 different integrations with third parties. In October Conversica won three awards at the fourth annual Global Annual Achievement Awards for Artificial Intelligence.[20] Also that month, Alex Terry stepped down from his role as CEO, to be replaced by former Janrain leader Jim Kaskade.[2]

Metro Center, where Conversica's Foster City HQ is located

Conversica's Intelligent Virtual Assistants are AI assistants who communicate with leads, prospects, customers, employees and other persons of interest (Contacts) in a human-like manner, via email and SMS text. The IVAs are built on an Intelligent Automation platform that leverages natural language understanding, natural language processing, natural language generation, deep learning and machine learning. The IVAs interact in a number of languages, including English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Japanese. The Assistants are generally deployed alongside sales and marketing, customer success, account management and higher education admissions teams, as part of an augmented workforce.[21] The Intelligent Automation platform integrates with over 50 external systems, including CRM, Marketing Automation, and other systems of record. A partial list of integration partners includes: Salesforce, Marketo, Oracle, HubSpot, DealerSocket, Reynolds & Reynolds, CDK Global, VinSolutions and many more.

• Official website