Conversational artificial intelligence startup aimed at financial services Kasisto has raised $9.2m in a Series A round led by Propel Venture Partners.
Backing also came from Mastercard, Commerce Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, DBS Bank, Partnership Fund for New York City, New York Angels and Harvard Business School Alumni Angels of New York.
The New York-based startup offers conversational AI that allows customers to interact with companies through bots and virtual assistants that understand natural language.
Dubbed KAI, the company’s platform is designed specifically to deal with consumers in finance and is licensed to retail banks, credit card companies and wealth management firms.
Last year also saw the company launch a consumer-facing banking bot.
Kasisto CEO Zor Gorelov said: “AI is already having a transformative impact on businesses and is permeating many different areas of people’s lives.
We are working with the leaders in the banking industry around the world and it is exciting to see the powerful new ways that KAI is helping them acquire new customers and interact with existing ones.”
The company says it will use the funding to scale the business and enter new markets as well as expanding its engineering and sales teams.
It will also use the capital to develop partnerships with systems integrators.
Propel partner Thomas Whiteaker said: “In 2016 we saw an acceleration in adoption of AI across financial services.
“I believe the future of financial services depends on how well these companies can engage with their customers on a personal, contextual and seamless level.
“Kasisto gives them the power of conversation and we’re excited about what’s ahead.”
Whiteaker will join the company’s board as a result of the deal.
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