Connectly, a leader in conversational artificial intelligence (AI) for businesses, announces a new Series B funding round of R$110 million, led by Alibaba, with participation from Unusual Ventures, Volpe Capital, RX Ventures (from the Renner Group), Falabella Ventures, and Philippos Kourkoulos Latsis. Founded in 2020 in Silicon Valley by veterans from big tech companies like Facebook, Google, Uber, and even NASA, the company uses proprietary Generative AI models and has been helping retailers worldwide expand their businesses through personalized messaging, a service available 24/7.
This Series B investment follows a significant year in Connectly's history, which included 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 over the past year. In this context, Brazil emerged as the company's main market, accounting for approximately 40% of its global revenue. Because of this, it was necessary to strengthen the local team: currently, 24% of its employees are Brazilian. In the country, key clients include names such as Lojas Renner, Puravida, Daki, and Farmácias São João. By 2025, the expectation is to see its revenue double globally.
Connectly's no-code platform allows companies to instantly create interactive campaigns and use AI to automate two-way conversations at scale, both with potential leads and loyal customers. As a result, the technology delivers tangible results for its clients, such as higher conversion rates, increased user engagement, and improved satisfaction and loyalty.
"Now, more than ever, customers seek 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 already achieved much in the past year, including the launch of the product search and recommendation feature with Sofia AI for e-commerce. The support from Alibaba, one of the largest retailers on the planet, is deeply impactful for our potential and will allow us to continue investing in our proprietary models and scaling our businesses," Loukakos adds.
Alibaba has been seeking partnerships with innovative companies that pave the way in their industries. This is exactly what they observed in Connectly's proposal and operations, due to its AI-driven conversational model. Therefore, Alibaba states it is eager to follow Connectly's future journey and its impact on brands around the globe.
