London-based OpenDialog, an open-source conversational experience platform that creates scalable and secure conversational applications, announced on Tuesday that it has raised $5M (approximately €4.66M) in a Seed round of funding.
Raised in only four weeks, the funds will enable OpenDialog to develop its product and support its expansion plans in the UK and other major markets globally.
A conversational experience platform
Founded in 2019, OpenDialog is a conversational AI platform to design, develop and deploy smarter human-to-machine conversations. The platform enables enterprises of all sizes and across virtually every industry to have engaging interactions.
The SaaS-based product with no-code conversation design helps businesses to create better customer experiences and is deployable immediately. Some of its customers include BDO, Peppercorn Insurance and The Cyber Helpline.
OpenDialog co-founder, Terry Walby, says, “OpenDialog will finally enable businesses and consumers to realise the game-changing potential of conversational AI – moving beyond the often painful experiences delivered by current chatbots and AI assistants. The market has been crying out for a solution like this, one that not only drives real operational efficiencies but also enhances and joins up customer experience across a wide range of channels.”
“We’ve brought together a highly experienced team that is incredibly excited about the potential of this technology, and this initial round of funding will enable us to quickly scale the business and build on the foundations that are already in place,” adds Walby.
About the OpenDialog founders
The company’s founding team includes technology entrepreneur, Terry Walby, who was the founder and CEO of Thoughtonomy, which sold to Blue Prism for $100M in 2019; Dean Chapman, previously the CCO of Thoughtonomy; and Dr Ronald Ashri, who led the research on which OpenDialog’s AI capabilities are built.
Since its inception, Dr Ashri has overseen the incubation of OpenDialog’s technology, worked with experts in the field and even validated with clients and use cases to create a market-ready, enterprise-class SaaS platform.
The three co-founders are commercialising and further developing the product in order to resolve issues with existing conversational AI technologies and build a new company in the space – one that will transform how humans interact with machines.
Co-founder Dr Ronald Ashri says, “Conversational AI is changing how humans use computer systems. For the last 40 years, the way people interact with machines has remained the same – a keyboard, a mouse and a screen. We have to understand how to use the machines in a way that fits into their very narrow and limited capabilities for interaction. But we’re turning this on its head, putting the onus on technology to understand humans.”
“OpenDialog, through a novel combination of AI techniques, introduces a new approach for facilitating natural, context-rich conversations with machines and makes these capabilities easily accessible to all enterprises,” says Ashri.
OpenDialog’s recent use cases include a legal firm using the platform to triage eligibility of applicants for a class-action lawsuit, a pharmaceutical company interacting with people reporting adverse effects from their drugs, and a challenger within the insurance market deploying the platform across its customer-facing channels to deliver efficiencies.
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