ConverseNow, a voice-based AI technology company, raised $3.3 million in seed funding last year. Now the company has received $15 million in Series A funding from Craft Ventures.The Austin-based AI voice ordering assistants George & Becky work in quick-serve restaurants and take orders by phone, chat, drive through, and self-service kiosks. This allows staff to focus on customer service and food preparation.LiveOak Venture Partners and Tensility Venture Partners joined Craft in the Series-A round. Also joining Craft were Bala Investments and Bala Investments. Angel investors Federico Castellucci, Ashish Gupta, and 2048 Ventures also participated. Vinay Shukla (co-founder and CEO at ConverseNow), said that the new investment brings ConverseNow's total funding up to $18.3 millions.Bryan Rosenblatt, a partner at Craft Ventures will join the company's board of directors. He stated in a written statement, that quick-service restaurants have been primed for digital transformation after the pandemic. ConverseNow has the unique opportunity to be a driving force within this space.ConverseNow was only piloting its technology in a few stores when it raised seed funding in 2020. It is now available in more than 750 stores, and has grown seven-fold in revenue and five-fold in headcount.Restaurants were among the most severely affected industries by the pandemic. Shukla stated that their main problems would be supply chain and labor. This is where our technology intersects.Shukla stated that the AI assistants can step in at peak times to take orders for customers who aren't waiting for their order to be placed.It can also help drive more business. ConverseNow claims it has been shown to increase average orders and revenue by 23% and 20% respectively, while also adding up to 12 hours per week of deployable labor time per store.Rahul Aggarwal, co-founder of the company, stated that more people prefer ordering remotely which has resulted in an increase in order volume. Multitasking makes workers less focused.ConverseNow allows you to see restaurants reimagined. Workers are more focused on what they love to do: preparing food. This is a great way to improve your work life balance. On the customer side, there's no need to wait in line. Operators are able to process more orders and the service time is reduced.Grand View Research has identified ConverseNow as one of the startups in the global restaurant management market. It is expected to grow to $6.94 billion by 2025. In the last year, both acquirers and investors have been attracted to startups in this space. Lightspeed, a point-of-sale company that sells software to the retail sector, bought Upserve in December for $430million. Sunday raised $24 Million earlier this year for its checkout technology.ConverseNow will be able to invest in sales, marketing and product innovation with the new funding. ConverseNow will be building a customer database and onboarding new customers faster by putting together the initial menu.The company can use artificial intelligence to correct any inconsistencies such as background noise during a call and predict what customers might say. It can also fix missing words and better translate orders. Shukla and Aggarwal want the platform to also be able tell them what's going on in the area, what traffic is like, what the weather is like, and any promotions that might drive upsell.
