Lead Investor STEADFAST Capital Ventures is joined by NEA, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, Gwyneth Paltrow, NBA Vet Baron Davis, and Robert Downey Jr.
Forethought, the Human-Centered AI Platform, today announced a $65 million Series C funding round that will fuel the company’s growth and accelerate the digital transformation in customer service with human-centered AI.
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“We believe there is a massive opportunity in the market to leverage the power of human-centered AI to automate a significant portion of the customer experience workflow as customer interactions race to being digital and online”
“The pandemic pushed individuals and businesses alike to quickly move to digital channels and processes, a shift that many weren’t prepared for,” said Deon Nicholas, Co-Founder & CEO of Forethought. “We’re helping companies transform their customer experiences, and this funding round will allow us to rapidly expand our research, product development, and marketing to do just that.”
STEADFAST Capital Ventures led the investment and was joined by previous investors NEA, Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and K9 Ventures. New investors Collaborative Fund, Frontline Ventures, Cleo Capital, and Spearhead joined the round, as did A-list notable individual investors, including Gwyneth Paltrow, two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis, Robert Downey Jr., Trevor McFedries, Kensho CEO Daniel Nadler, Dr. Christopher Manning, IronClad CEO Jason Boehmig, HumanFirst CEO Andy Coravos, Taylor Greene, and Adrienne Harris.
As part of the funding round, Karan Mehandru, Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital at STEADFAST Capital Ventures, will join Forethought’s Board of Directors.
“We believe there is a massive opportunity in the market to leverage the power of human-centered AI to automate a significant portion of the customer experience workflow as customer interactions race to being digital and online,” said Mehandru. “Forethought is the fastest-growing company in this emerging space with raving customers in every vertical, and their best-in-class team and technology are transforming the customer experience for some of the most important organizations of our time. We’re thrilled to be partners on this journey and couldn’t be more excited to be investing in Deon, Sami, and the Forethought team.”
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This raise comes on the heels of a breakout year for the company where Forethought increased ARR by 5X, tripled its customer count, and now supports over 10 million human interactions annually on behalf of its customers. This highlights a critical need amongst customer service teams for better support technology that doesn’t sacrifice the customer experience, especially as companies scale.
“At Goop, our entire business revolves around the customer,” said Gwyneth Paltrow, renowned actress, author, and Goop CEO. “When I saw how Forethought’s AI can transform the customer experience, I knew there was something special here. Human-centered AI will change the world. I’m proud to be a Forethought investor and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”
