Zowie, maker of an AI (artificial intelligence)-powered chatbot for eCommerce companies, announced Tuesday (May 24) that it had raised $14 million in Series A funding.
The round, led by Tiger Global and with participants that include Google’s AI-focused fund Gradient Ventures, brings the company’s total raised capital to $20 million, Zowie said on its website.
“This funding will help us deepen our talent pool and expand our product,” said Zowie CEO Maja Schaefer. “We’ll be offering even more tools designed for Zowie customers to turn their customer support into sales.”
Based in New York, Zowie bills itself as the only AI-powered chatbot designed especially for eCommerce teams. The company’s technology automates 70% of inquiries that eCommerce companies usually get, such as “where’s my package?” or “how can I change my shipping address?”
Schaefer adds that Zowie also knows when not to provide automated answers “because some inquiries need a human touch.”
See also: Improved AI Gives Chatbots a Second Life in the Digital Ecosystem
As PYMNTS noted last fall, chatbots have experienced a bit of a comeback in recent years thanks to improved AI.
“The messaging ecosystem is giant — lots of channels depending on where you are the world and what market you’re in — and eCommerce is shifting,” Matt Ramerman, president of Sinch for Marketing, told PYMNTS in an interview. “Will dot-com stores go away? No chance, but the share of balance moving toward wanting to be able to shop a catalog with a smart … AI system, and being able to shop in messaging, is the future.”
Ramerman said he’s spoken with several eCommerce directors at Fortune 500 companies that have echoed this notion, which surprised him at first.
“I was always thinking of it as a way to connect to … the catalog” by direct-messaging consumers with promotions and deals, he said. “But the fact that they’re thinking and seeing evidence that it’s the primary preference, the easiest way for consumers to shop, that’s a big deal.”
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