Virtual voice agent developer Agara banks $4.3m in pre-series A extension

Agara, a startup developing a virtual voice agent for companies, said it has raised a US$4.3 million pre-series A extension round led by Japanese early-stage venture capital firm UTEC.

Existing investors including Blume Ventures and RTP Global also participated in the financing round, bringing the startup’s total funds raised to US$7.5 million.

The Agara team / Photo credit: Agara

Agara provides companies with virtual agents that can handle customer support services through machine learning. The firm will use the funds raised from the financing round to accelerate product development, increase hiring for its technology team, and bankroll its expansion into the UK and Australia.

Agara, which is headquartered in New York, plans to double its team of machine learning and data scientists to 20 this year and establish its first pure AI research team in Bangalore.

“Last year, we processed over a million calls and a million emails in 12 countries across every continent in four languages. With the new surge in demand, we are confident of increasing this number to over 5 million calls,” said CEO Abhimanyu.

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Currently, Agara processes customer support queries for 160 brands in 10 countries, including consumer goods major Procter and Gamble, the firm said.

The company aims to capitalize on the increasing demand for AI in the speech recognition market in India, which is expected to hit 14.6 billion rupees (US$200.2 million) by 2024.