Photo: Astound
Menlo Park, California-based enterprise software company Astound is a rapidly growing startup that uses artificial intelligence to re-imagine and improve employee service. Founded by Dan Turchin (Chief Product Officer and co-founder) and Naghi Prasad (CEO and co-founder), Astound recently announced it closed $15.5 million in Series B funding led by March Capital Partners.
Previous investors Vertex Ventures, Pelion Venture Partners, Moment Ventures, and the Slack Fund also participated in this round. Including this round of funding, Astound raised $27 million total.
Plus Astound revealed several other significant growth milestones like its customer count doubling in the past year across key sectors. And the company has signed partnerships with some of the industry’s leading managed service providers and system integrators.
EMA Research Director Valerie O’Connell also recently named Astound a “Vendor to Watch.” O’Connell pointed out that “Astound’s AI platform for employee service sets a high bar for virtual agents and service automation.”
“We’re proud to be introducing the future of work to the world’s most-respected organizations. Every service provider will soon deliver exceptional employee experiences using AI-driven automation,” said Turchin. “We’re using this investment to accelerate innovation and hire the best talent. This team is ambitious, hungry, and committed to making work life better for every employee who has ever called the help desk.”
What does Astound do? It streamlines the way employees receive support and service teams resolve issues, thus enabling agents at large enterprise companies to solve problems faster and more accurately to minimize employee downtime. Plus Astound’s AI platform for employee service adds a layer of intelligence to existing service management systems including ServiceNow, BMC, Jira, Cherwell, Workday, etc. Along with automating routine requests and tasks with virtual support agents, Astound improves accuracy across the service cycle by making live agents smarter with contextual recommendations.
“We invest in bold entrepreneurs pursuing big outcomes with the potential for explosive growth, and Astound delivers on all fronts. While the customer service industry has begun to capitalize on the promise of AI, only Astound has extended this potential to deliver the fastest and most intelligent employee customer service,” added March Capital managing director Sumant Mandal. “We see Astound as becoming the key to unlocking the potential for enterprises to link efficient internal support with increased employee satisfaction and productivity, better business outcomes, and higher profitability across the enterprise.”
Along with automating routine requests and tasks with virtual support agents, Astound improves accuracy across the service cycle by making live agents smarter with contextual recommendations.
“We are constantly searching for the latest innovative technologies and new ways to solve problems for our customers,” explained Yogesh Khanna — who is the Chief Technology Officer for General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT). “Our work with Astound showcases how artificial intelligence and machine learning can provide new solutions for federal employees, soldiers and veterans. We look forward to hosting Astound at our upcoming GDIT Emerge conference on April 23 and highlighting their value in the federal market.”
One of the leading providers of insurance services started recently using the Astound AI platform. And it is benefitting from reduced call volume, lower cost per ticket, and reduced mean time for resolving issues. The company’s Senior IT Director said that they evaluated many other solutions, but Astound was the only one that understands employee service and can deliver AI-driven automation at the scale required to meet the needs of customers.
Astound’s AI platform uses a combination of machine learning and natural language processing for automating IT and HR service and support. Plus Astound’s technology finds the best answer wherever it lives across the enterprise whether it is in email, shared databases, spreadsheets, web content, or other repositories.
