Invoca, the pioneer in AI-powered call tracking and conversational analytics, today announced it has raised $56 million in new capital, bringing the total financing of the company to $116 million. The financing was led by existing investor Upfront Ventures and new investor H.I.G. Growth Partners, with participation from other investors including Accel and Morgan Stanley Alternative Investment Partners.
This recent funding round comes on the heels of 75% year-over-year bookings growth in the first half of 2019. Invoca serves innovative marketers at leading brands like Dish Network, Dignity Health, U.S. Bank, and Gusto, and continues to deepen strategic partnerships with Google, Adobe, Facebook, and Salesforce. Invoca plans to double headcount throughout the next three years and was recognized today as a Fortune Best Workplace, a testament to the company’s investment in building a supportive, transparent, and inclusive culture.
Gregg Johnson, CEO of Invoca said that “With digital advertising spend expected to near $400 billion next year, marketers are investing heavily in Google and Facebook to drive awareness and customer acquisition. Yet over 90% of commerce still happens offline via contact centers and retail stores, especially in industries with more complex, expensive products. Businesses are having a tough time and are struggling to connect digital advertising investments to human conversations that drive sales. Invoca addresses this gap and is helping sophisticated marketers like Dish Network drive a 60% increase in conversion rates and 15x lift in conversions.”
Mark Suster, managing partner at Upfront Ventures stated that “Invoca made a huge leap by applying AI to sales calls. Marketers now discover the ‘purchase intent’ of consumers similar to how valuable it is knowing the terms a lead has typed into a Google search. With computers in every customer’s pocket, calls have become an insanely important marketing channel for every brand.”
Managing director of H.I.G. Growth Partners Scott Hilleboe said that “We’re coming into an era where technology is being used to enable and improve human connections, instead of replacing them. Invoca is at the forefront of this shift, giving marketers the tools to uncover and act on conversational insights in a way that is scalable as well as simple, similar to what they have been doing on the digital side for years. Given H.I.G.’s extensive investment experience in call centers, analytics, and digital media, we quickly identified the incredible power and value of Invoca’s technology. We are truly excited to co-lead this round and usher Invoca into its next phase of growth, building on its already impressive business momentum and customer-first culture.”
Invoca plans to utilize the funding to accelerate the development of its award-winning products and broaden its ecosystem of partners in marketing technology, digital advertising, CRM, and affiliate marketing. Earlier this month, Invoca released Signal Discovery, which uses a proprietary unsupervised machine learning model to analyze buying conversations between consumers and experts in the contact center. This helps marketers understand, in real-time, the factors affecting consumer’s intent to purchase, like competitive promotional campaigns. Marketers can apply these insights to drive more revenue-generating calls, boost conversion rates, and improve the buying experience.