Investors are in love with agentic AI and chatbots right now.
The most recent example of that infatuation is Manychat’s $140 million growth capital raise led by Summit Partners. The Palo Alto, California-based company provides conversational AI and automation tools for businesses across social and messaging platforms.
“Manychat was founded with a mission to help businesses grow by building meaningful customer relationships,” said co-founder and CEO Mike Yan in a release. “We also take pride in our ability to package and simplify new foundational technologies for the benefit of our customers. … This new funding, along with Summit Partners’ guidance and expertise, will support our continued innovation in the realm of agentic AI and intelligent automation, helping our team and our products deliver true value for businesses and creators around the world.”
The startup says it sends “billions of messages annually” on Instagram, TikTok and other platforms, for more than a million businesses.
The company, which has been profitable, will use the new cash to accelerate its global expansion, invest in R&D, enhance marketing and customer support, and advance AI agent features across new and existing channels.
Founded in 2015, the company has raised $163 million, per Crunchbase.
Rise of the bots
It is no surprise to see companies using AI are getting funded. Last quarter, AI was the leading sector for venture funding with $59.6 billion invested, per Crunchbase.
In particular, AI agents and chatbots are getting lots of attention from investors. Just last week, Exaforce locked up a $75 million Series A funding led by Khosla Ventures, Mayfield Fund 1 and Thomvest Ventures. The San Jose, California-based startup is helping bring artificial intelligence agents to security operations centers.
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Illustration: Dom Guzman
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