South African venture capital firm Kalon Venture Partners and Mauritius-based Compass Venture Capital have announced their co-investment into one of the leading financial services chatbot providers, FinChatBot. The investment amount is $500 000 (over R7 million).
FinChatBot develops chatbots to help financial service providers acquire and retain customers through artificial intelligence-powered conversations. FinChatBot has proven in less than two years that acquisition of new customers via automated chat conversations have a much higher success rate than any other channel. FinChatBot will utilize the investment to continue its rapid growth and expand its client pipeline.
Antoine Paillusseau and Romain Diaz, FinChatBot co-founders, identified the opportunity to use chatbots to meet the expectations of customers globally for services that are available 24/7. FinChatBot promises to dramatically lower the drop off rate traditionally experienced by customers who engage with a call centre. Founded in 2016, FinChatBot has developed and services chatbot experiences for more than ten top-tier insurers and banks in South Africa.
Paillusseau commented, “By implementing our chatbots, financial services providers are able to increase their conversion rates, reduce operational costs and gather more data about customers which can be used for product innovation and customer retention.”
Reflecting on the significance of this investment by two of the southern hemispheres most respected venture capital firms, Paillusseau concluded: “It’s a significant vote of confidence in our vision for FinChatBot and I am extremely excited to learn from and grow with our partners.”
Fabrice Boullé, Partner at Compass Capital, highlights that its investment is as much in the leadership of FinChatBot as it is in the technology. Boullé observed that, “FinChatBot’s business model, based on an unmatched expertise in creating chatbots for the financial services industry, struck us as ahead of the regional competition. But in the end, our investment decision was mainly motivated by our trust in Antoine’s capacity to lead FinChatBot to the top, as well as our appreciation for his straightforward personality and transparency.”
Clive Butkow, Kalon CEO, expressed excitement about the conclusion of this deal. “As a leading technology venture capital company, we are constantly searching for the best of the best in new and emerging technologies disrupting industries. Chatbots are undeniably one of the fastest growing customer service industries, disrupting a traditionally frustrating customer experience. We identified FinChatBot as one of the leaders of this new industry, not only in the financial services industry but the chatbot eco-system as a whole.”
Boullé concluded, “We are delighted to have Kalon Venture Partners as a co-investor. We are convinced that Clive and Kalon’s impressive board will add immense value to unlocking FinChatBot’s potential. We believe FCB has reached a significant milestone in its development by raising funds from institutional investors, and we look forward to seeing Antoine and the FinChatBot team accelerate.”
