Forethought Announces $65 Million to Digitize Customer Service Through AI

By Thomas Price | Wednesday, 15 December 2021 | Startup, Tech

Forethought, a tech startup launched in 2018, has created a customer service platform powered by artificial intelligence (AI) built to transition the customer service industry toward digitization. The company recently closed its Series C funding round led by STEADFAST Capital Ventures.

Forethought Business Growth and AI Platform

Tech startup Forethought leverages its AI technology to answer and solve customer service tickets automatically. By predicting customer needs and prioritizing tickets based on urgency, the software developed by the company is designed to cut down on the amount of time it takes to resolve customer service issues. For more complex tickets that require longer interactions, the AI software reroutes tickets to human representatives and marks each one’s priority level. The tech startup also provides its customer service representatives with tools and resources that can be used to increase their own efficiency when they chat with customers. 

The AI platform created by Forethought also offers direct analytics on its own performance so business owners can more accurately measure its value and return on investment (ROI). The company claims that its AI is more than 90% accurate in identifying and solving customer service tickets. Forethought also reports a 20% increase in overall efficiency once the AI platform is integrated into a customer service department. 

Forethought is also in the midst of the fastest business growth period since its launch. Over the course of the last year, the company has increased its annual recurring revenue (ARR) by 5x. Furthermore, the tech startup tripled its customer count and now provides services to Crunchbase, Acorns, Marriott, Upwork, and InstaCart, among many others. The tech startup directly supports over 10 million human interactions each year, with that figure projected to grow even larger in 2022.

Forethought Funding Round and Future Business Goals

In its Series C funding round, Forethought raised $65 million in capital. STEADFAST Capital Ventures was joined in the round by NEA, Ashton Kutcher, Sound Ventures, the Collaborative Fund, K9 Ventures, Spearhead, Cleo Capital, Frontline Ventures, and several notable individual investors such as Gwynneth Paltrow and Robert Downey Jr. The company has now raised a total of $92 million. Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital at STEADFAST Capital Ventures Karan Mehandru will join Forethought’s board of directors. 

The tech startup plans to use the newly raised capital to accelerate its business by hiring a larger team of engineers and doubling the staff across all departments. The company also plans to make aggressive marketing moves to onboard new clients; the goal is to triple its ARR in 2022 once again. 

Forethought is a part of the growing customer experience management market estimated to be worth approximately $10 billion in 2021. The market is expected to reach nearly $17 billion by 2026 at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.3%. 

In a statement released alongside the funding announcement, Karan Mehandru said, “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. 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.”

About the Author

Thomas Price

Tom Price is a writer focusing on Entertainment and Sports Features. He has a degree from NYU in English with a minor in Creative Writing. He has been previously published for Washington Square News, Dignitas, CBR, and Numbers on the Boards.