Novus, an Istanbul-based AI chatbot startup, raised a $2.5 million seed for U.S.
expansion, co-founder Vorga Can tells Axios exclusively.
The big picture: OpenAI and Sierra have been "looking beyond today's popular chatbots
to a world in which AI agents act on your behalf," Axios reported early this year.
How it works: Working with 130-plus European customers, Novus provides AI agent
orchestration— or the coordination of multiple AI agents to achieve a shared objective.
● Novus' platform, which utilizes LLMs to perform various tasks, gives large
companies "the ability to create hundreds of agents on demand," CEO Riza
Egehan Asad said in a statement.
● Germany-based electronics retailer MediaMarkt, for example, uses Novus to
handle customer inquiries, streamline returns and exchanges, and provide
multichannel customer support, Can says.
● Qatar National Bank uses Novus to listen to calls via its call center in real time.
The platform then provides instant feedback to human sales agents, he says.
Zoom in: The round was raised from Venture Lane, MIT Sandbox, Vestel Ventures,
Gelecek Etki Fonu, Inveo Ventures, DeBa Ventures and Sabanci Ventures.
● The VC firms brought in have varying levels of familiarity with the U.S. market,
Can says. Proceeds will partly help finance the opening of an office in Boston.
Catch up quick: In addition to Can, who is chief revenue officer, the company was
co-founded by Asad and chief AI researcher Ekin Akyürek.
● Novus has spent the past four years in product development and deployment
across European companies including L'Oréal and Forbes EU.
Flashback: The company initially focused its tech on fact-checking or identifying
misinformation, with media players being its initial main end-user.
● But Novus' co-founders saw a bigger opportunity to provide a platform that
provided "a no-code way to automate tasks across sales, marketing, and
operations."
● That ended up attracting the attention of Venture Lane and MIT Sandbox.
What's next: Novus will complete its go-to-market in Europe and open a Paris
headquarters, Can says.
● The company will likely raise funding again in two years, he adds.
Bu haber 19 Kasım 2024 tarihinde Axios tarafından yayımlandı.
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