Encore AI has successfully raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. These funds are designated for the global scaling of its enterprise artificial intelligence platform.
Encore AI has successfully raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. These funds are designated for the global scaling of its enterprise artificial intelligence platform.
The round was led by Team8, with participation from Planven and The Garage. Other investors included Lukatz, as well as several commercial banks and insurance companies that had previously used the company's platform.
The secured financing will enable Encore AI to develop its products and increase international operations. The company plans to boost the adoption of its solutions in large enterprises and expand its presence in the financial sector and other highly regulated industries where compliance and customer engagement are critical.
Encore AI was founded in 2022 by Dr. Dvira Ginsburg. Its primary mission is to solve the problem of revenue generation, unlike other customer service AI services that focus on reducing operational costs by decreasing human interaction. The company achieves this by training intelligent agents to mimic the performance of top sales and customer service employees.
At the core of Encore AI's technology is a patented Interaction Mining mechanism. This allows for detailed analysis of behavioral patterns that consistently lead to the most desired outcomes in customer interactions across various channels. The platform transforms these behavioral models into AI agents capable of conducting interactions or augmenting the work of existing agents in real time. Encore's capabilities cover voice communication, chats, interactive voice response, and digital channels, while fully adhering to the strict regulatory and compliance standards required for operation in fields such as banking and insurance.
CEO Dr. Dvira Ginsburg noted that most enterprise AI platforms focus exclusively on cost reduction. He emphasized that Encore AI helps organizations unlock the value already present in years of customer interaction data by training AI agents to replicate the actions of their most effective employees. The company claims its platform can be deployed within weeks without requiring lengthy implementation projects. One major credit client reported a tenfold return on investment just months after launching the technology.
Currently, Encore AI serves over 40 corporate clients globally, the majority of whom are financial institutions. According to the company, annual recurring revenue has grown more than fivefold since the previous funding round less than 18 months ago. The new capital will be primarily directed towards developing the company's sales department in the United States and increasing deployments among larger financial organizations. Furthermore, Encore AI intends to continue refining its proprietary AI models and enterprise capabilities.
Team8 Partner Hadar Sitterman Norris believes that many organizations possess years of valuable customer interaction data but have not yet managed to convert it into measurable business value. She posits that Encore AI has created a platform capable of turning this information into sustainable revenue growth while maintaining the compliance architecture required by regulated industries. Planven Managing Partner Eran Westman added that successful enterprise AI companies will be defined by the long-term value they create, not just automation. He characterized Encore AI's combination of proprietary data analytics and industry expertise as a solid foundation for building a leading platform in its category. The company aims to help organizations improve sales performance, strengthen customer engagement, and scale the experience of their most productive employees through intelligent automation.
The tech startup Genius AI has raised $44 million in investment to capitalize on the growing demand in the personal interaction-focused service economy. With this Series D funding round, the company's valuation reached $1.15 billion.
Venture firm Lux Capital led the round. Other investors included Bessemer Venture Partners, Imaginary Ventures, L Catterton Growth, 2048 Ventures, and StepStone Private Ventures. These funds will allow Genius AI to shift its focus from beauty booking software to autonomous artificial intelligence tools for a wider range of in-person services.
The company, formerly known as GlossGenius, was founded in 2015 by identical sisters Danielle and Leah Cohen-Shohet. They initially created GlossGenius to help salon owners, aestheticians, and spa operators manage their daily operations. Danielle independently learned programming and wrote the initial code, and over time, the software became a dominant force in the market, helping small businesses process payments, book clients, and promote their services.
The company is now changing its name to Genius AI, signifying a broader mission. As Genius AI, the platform will support all in-person professionals. It is planned for use in medical spas, physical therapy centers, fitness studios, injections, and health clinics.
The physical service economy in the United States includes about eight million businesses generating over $2 trillion in annual consumer spending. Although studies show that business owners spend nearly 36% of their working time on administrative tasks, Genius AI aims to completely eliminate this bureaucratic burden. The platform goes beyond simple assistance tools and transforms into an autonomous AI agent capable of handling complex tasks end-to-end, freeing up business owners to interact with clients.
The company demonstrates impressive growth and operational scale. Currently, the system is used by over 125,000 businesses across half of the US zip codes. Genius AI reports that its platform is approaching $200 million in annual revenue. To date, the company's tools have helped clients save over 112 million hours of administrative work. To deepen penetration into the healthcare sector, the company has added full HIPAA compliance, allowing physical therapists and clinical specialists to securely store sensitive patient data. This gives Genius AI a significant advantage over traditional tools lacking privacy protection. As artificial intelligence automates office work, human care becomes even more valuable, as skilled professionals like masseuses and trainers provide care that computer code cannot replicate. The new funding is planned to be used to expand software development and increase the engineering team.
Natural has successfully raised $30 million in a Series A funding round. These funds are earmarked to accelerate the development of specialized payment infrastructure designed specifically for the needs of AI agents. The round was led by Forerunner, with existing investors continuing to provide support, bringing the company's total funding to over $40 million.
The investment came less than a year after the company's launch and reflects growing confidence that AI agents will increasingly participate in financial transactions. The new round attracted the attention of founders and executives from leading technology and fintech companies, underscoring significant industry interest in the emerging agent payments sector.
Natural was founded by individuals such as Kahlil Lalji, Eric Wang, and Walt Leung. The company is developing a specialized payment platform that enables AI agents to manage funds, move money, make purchases, collect payments, and conduct transactions across various banking networks and payment channels. The company believes that autonomous AI systems will become significant financial participants as businesses increasingly adopt agents for self-performing work tasks. Instead of using infrastructure designed for humans, Natural is creating a dedicated financial stack tailored to the operational requirements of AI-based software.
Natural has already released six products to the public, including Wallets, Vaults, Pay, Request, Transfer, and Connect. These services allow businesses to create financial accounts for AI agents, execute fund transfers, process payments, and integrate payment capabilities into marketplaces and platforms. In the coming months, the company plans to expand its platform with new products such as Voice, Accept, and Cards. These new features will enable AI agents to securely accept payment data, process payments from vendors, and use specialized payment cards.
Later this year, Natural intends to introduce the Charge, Credit, Direct, and Billing products. These additions will provide support for API-based billing, credit facilities for AI agents, direct access to payment channels, and usage-based payment models for autonomous software.
The secured funds will help Natural continue building its proprietary banking and payment infrastructure, as well as expanding its engineering and commercial teams. Despite being young, the company claims to have developed most of its core technology internally and is actively hiring staff across all departments. Investors believe that AI agents are transforming from simple productivity tools into autonomous economic participants capable of managing financial operations on behalf of businesses. As adoption grows, demand is expected to increase for specialized infrastructure that manages identity, compliance, reconciliation, fraud prevention, and payment orchestration for these digital workers.
The Series A was led by Forerunner with participation from existing investors. Additional sponsors include founders and executives from Human Capital, Abstract, Increase, HappyRobot, Browserbase, Notion, Privy, Brex, Y Combinator, Antifund, and several other technology firms. Natural stated that the new capital will be directed toward further product development, as the company is building what it calls the foundational payment infrastructure for AI agents. The company predicts that autonomous software will become an increasingly vital part of global commerce, requiring financial systems designed specifically for machine transactions rather than traditional human workflows. Thus, Natural aims to become the financial backbone powering the next generation of autonomous digital economies.
