Connectly, a leader in conversational artificial intelligence (AI) for businesses, announces a new funding of R$ 110 million, a Series B round led by Alibaba, with the participation of Unusual Ventures, Volpe Capital, RX Ventures (from Grupo Renner), Falabella Ventures, and Philippos Kourkoulos Latsis. Founded in 2020, in Silicon Valley, by veterans of big tech companies such as Facebook, Google, Uber, and even NASA, the company uses proprietary Generative AI models and has helped retailers worldwide expand their businesses through personalized messages, a service available 24 hours a day.
This Series B investment comes after a significant year for Connectly’s history, which includes its Series A funding, in October 2023, marking its entry into the US market. Also in 2023, the company launched its advanced product recommendation assistant, Sofia AI, and as a result, nearly doubled its revenue and workforce in the past year. In this context, Brazil emerged as the company’s main market, representing about 40% of its global revenue. As a result, the team needed to be strengthened here: currently, 24% of its employees are Brazilians. In the country, among the main clients are names like Lojas Renner, Puravida, Daki, and Farmácias São João. The expectation for 2025 is to see its revenue double globally.
Connectly’s no-code platform allows companies to create interactive campaigns instantly and use AI to automate bidirectional conversations at scale, with potential leads and loyal customers. Therefore, the technology provides tangible results for its clients, such as increased conversion rates, higher user engagement, improved satisfaction, and loyalty.
“Now more than ever, customers are seeking personalized interactions with retail and e-commerce brands,” explains Stefanos Loukakos, co-founder and CEO of Connectly. “We are working vigorously to bring conversational AI to brands around the world, creating more personalized interactions at scale. We have accomplished a lot in the past year, including launching the search and product recommendation functionality with Sofia AI for e-commerce. The support from Alibaba, one of the largest retailers on the planet, is profoundly impactful to our potential and will allow us to continue investing in our proprietary models and scaling our business,” adds Loukakos.
Alibaba has been seeking partnerships with innovative companies that are paving the way in their industries. This is exactly what they observed in the proposal and operations of Connectly, due to its AI-driven conversational model. As a result, Alibaba expresses eagerness to follow the future journey and impact of Connectly on brands around the globe.
