Austin-based company ConverseNow is bringing artificial intelligence to your local drive thru. The company’s software enables restaurants and fast food franchises to take orders autonomously via an AI-driven voice assistant. Now, 14 months following its seed funding round, the company just landed another investment to continue expanding its service.
ConverseNow announced Thursday that it raised $15 million in a Series A round led by Craft Ventures. The company’s platform fulfills orders with a special mix of advanced speech technology, custom machine learning models and emotional intelligence.
Ordering via AI-assistant might sound like a far-fetched idea, but many fast food giants have recently begun warming up to the concept. Over the last two years, companies like KFC and McDonald’s have been experimenting with tech similar to that offered by ConverseNow.
“In the quick service restaurant industry, as more people choose to stay home, increase social distancing, carryout and request delivery, it means they are placing more phone orders and drive thru orders to restaurants that are struggling to have enough staff to handle this shift in social behavior and related volume,” Vinay Shukla, co-founder and CEO of ConverseNow, said in a blog written for Partech.
Over 1.5 million orders have been processed using ConverseNow’s technology to date, according to the company.
“AI can help quick service restaurants by providing a ‘digital employee’ who can take some of the load off of human employees at peak times, taking orders while human employees focus on preparing and turning orders to runners for quick delivery,” Shukla continued.
ConverseNow’s software works across several ordering channels including by phone, drive thru or via self-service kiosk. The software can even be used to predict customer ordering behavior and offer personalized recommendations, according to the company.
Following the latest raise, ConverseNow plans to invest in product development as well as hire for its team. The AI-powered ordering software is now hiring for over a dozen roles spanning multiple departments.
ConverseNow has raised $18.3 million in venture capital financing to date, according to the company.
Additional investors LiveOak Venture Partners, Tensility Venture Partners and Knoll Ventures participated in the round, among others.
