Connectly.ai, a company that uses artificial intelligence to help retailers and e-commerce leaders sell their products and services on any messaging platform, has just been awarded theAlibabaSeries B of $20 million led byFinancing, followed by Unusual Ventures, Volpe Capital, RX Ventures, Falabella Ventures and Philippos Kourkoulos Latsis. Founded in 2020 by industry veterans from Facebook, Google, Uber, and McKinsey, Connectly leverages proprietary Artificial Intelligence (AI) models to help retailers grow their business with personalized, two-way customer messaging in an increasingly digital world.
The Series B investment comes on the heels of a milestone year for Connectly, which included raising a Series A investment in October 2023, marking its entry into the U.S. market. Additionally, the company launched Sofia AI, an easy-to-use, advanced AI product recommendation assistant, in 2023 and has nearly doubled its revenue and headcount in the past year.
"Now more than ever, customers want personalized interactions with retail and e-commerce brands," said Stefanos Loukakos, Co-Founder and CEO of Connectly. "At Connectly, we are actively working to bring AI-powered conversational commerce to brands around the world to create more personalized interactions at scale. We've accomplished a lot in the past year, including the launch of our new enterprise AI search and Sofia AI. the support of Alibaba, one of the world's largest retailers, has had a profound impact on our potential and has enabled us to continue to invest in our proprietary AI model and expand our business."
Connectly.ai's platform integrates with several messaging apps and services (including WhatsApp, Instagram, SMS, and web-based chatbots) to allow brands to create campaigns and automate certain basic conversations with customers. The AI is fine-tuned to the retailer's product catalog and preferences, and taps into the brand's online store to send SMS messages informing customers of price changes, inventory availability, and special offers.
Connectly.ai has more than 300 paying customers and is expected to grow its revenue by $1,00% in 2024, compared to a 5x increase in revenue last year. Venture capitalists are also bullish on Connectly.ai, and the funding will help the company further expand its business.
A spokesperson for Alibaba said, "We want to partner with innovative companies that are blazing a trail in the industry. connectly.ai does exactly that through AI conversational commerce."