Valence, the company behind Nadia, which is referred to as the world’s first enterprise AI coach, has recently announced a significant funding milestone, successfully raising $50 million in a Series B funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners. This investment will enable Valence to develop its product further and expand its reach in the enterprise software market.
As part of this funding round, Sameer Dholakia, a seasoned Partner at Bessemer, will join Valence’s board. Dholakia brings extensive CEO operating experience and valuable insights gained from his investments in leading AI companies, including Anthropic, Abridge, and EvenUp.
Valence is at the forefront of creating a new category of software aimed at enterprises: AI coaching. Nadia, the company’s flagship AI coach, has been deployed at scale across multiple Fortune 500 companies, including industry giants like Experian, Delta Air Lines, Kraft Heinz, and General Mills. With over 50 global deployments and more than one million coaching conversations facilitated, Nadia has consistently demonstrated high user satisfaction and engagement.
Nadia aims to democratize access to personalized coaching, which was historically reserved for high-level executives. By making this resource available to a broader range of employees, organizations can foster professional development across all levels. Furthermore, Nadia equips Human Resources teams with a powerful tool to tackle some of the most pressing challenges faced in today’s workplaces. These challenges include adapting to the rapid integration of AI technologies, finding practical solutions for increasing burnout rates across various industries, and enabling large corporations to respond swiftly to technological changes.
The journey of developing Nadia began in December 2022, with the coach officially launched in early 2023, making it the inaugural AI coach on the market. Nadia is now recognized as one of the most sophisticated agentic AI systems functioning at a global scale. Unlike traditional general AI models, Nadia operates on a proprietary memory-and-context engine, allowing it to provide customized deployments that align with a company’s unique culture, workflows, and leadership styles. This tailored approach ensures that the coaching delivered is not only personalized and actionable but also seamlessly integrated into employees’ everyday workflow.
Enterprises are beginning to see tangible benefits from implementing Nadia within their organizations. For example, Experian has successfully embedded Nadia into its performance management process, resulting in one-third of the company’s global workforce actively using the coach to enhance their career trajectories. Delta Air Lines has rolled out Nadia to its frontline leaders, enabling them to access real-time support, which improves customer service delivery across large teams. Analog Devices has also adopted Nadia for its global workforce, providing first-time technical managers with leadership coaching available in over 30 languages, thus ensuring effective communication and support for a diverse workforce.
How the funding will be used: With the new funding, Valence plans to accelerate the development of Nadia’s features and capabilities, enhance its go-to-market strategies, and deepen partnerships with some of the world’s largest enterprises. Additionally, the company plans to expand its team, bringing on new talent to support its growth mission and ensure it continues to lead in the realm of AI coaching solutions for enterprises.
KEY QUOTES:
“AI coaching represents an entirely new category of enterprise software, one that is both deeply personal for the individual and transformational for HR at scale. With Nadia, Valence has proven that AI can democratize access to effective, context-rich coaching. We see Valence as an extraordinary example of how AI can dramatically improve the lives and careers of all employees.”
Sameer Dholakia, Partner at Bessemer
“We’ve been closely monitoring the AI space, especially coaching, and Nadia stood out. We brought her in last year to scale personalized coaching across ADI, and employees loved it. We are now doubling down, customizing her to all things Analog Devices and beginning to deeply embed her in our talent strategy and programs. We’re very excited about how Nadia can bring a more personalized, people-oriented talent strategy to life.”
Mariya Trickett, Chief People Officer at Analog Devices
“Every worker will have an AI coach. The question is whether that coach simply gives answers, or whether it truly transforms how people learn, perform, and work together. Nadia is the first enterprise AI coach that helps people and organizations thrive in the AI era.”
Parker Mitchell, co-founder and CEO of Valence
