B2B SaaS
Q2 202402.05.2024

Sales & Customer Service

Picture of Shubham Jaipuria

Shubham Jaipuria

at Sifted

Sales and customer service tech startups have had a prosperous 2024 so far. Investors’ enthusiasm for this industry owes much to the hype around generative AI and how it promises to introduce all kinds of efficiency gains. Case in point: Klarna. The Swedish fintech says its AI customer support assistant, in partnership with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is doing the work of 700 human agents and has handled two-thirds of the company’s customer service queries in its first month. This change to Klarna’s customer service could boost profits by $40m in 2024, the company says..

There have been some noteworthy deals on both sides. A standout deal of the year is Berlin’s Parloa, which raised a €61.7m Series B from Altimeter Capital in April, for its customer service automation tools. On the sales side, Paris-based Catalog is helping sales employees reduce their admin burden. It secured a €3m round earlier this year from Kima Ventures.

So what does the future hold for this sector? With increasing labour shortages, current levels of customer service have become inadequate and sales processes could be enhanced. Whether it's integrating customer service automation or using tech to improve training, there is room for more adoption and startups can expect growing levels of interest.

20 startups to watch

  • Reveal logo

    Sifted score

    8.88
    -

    Reveal

    • Strong investor(s)
    • Serial founder(s)

    • Year founded

      2019

    • HQ

      Paris, France

    • Latest round

      Series A
      €45.5m / Apr 2022

    • Total funding

      €49.1m

    View company profile
  • Nintailed logo

    Sifted score

    7.83
    -

    Nintailed

    • Strong investor(s)
    • Serial founder(s)

    • Year founded

      2021

    • HQ

      Berlin, Germany

    • Latest round

      Seed
      €5m / Oct 2022

    • Total funding

      €5.8m

    View company profile
  • Cello logo

    Sifted score

    7.39
    -

    Cello

    • Strong investor(s)

    • Year founded

      2022

    • HQ

      Munich, Germany

    • Latest round

      Seed
      €3.1m / Jul 2023

    • Total funding

      €5.4m

    View company profile
  • Folk.app logo

    Sifted score

    7.35
    -

    Folk.app

    • Strong investor(s)
    • Serial founder(s)
    • Hiring

    • Year founded

      2020

    • HQ

      Paris, France

    • Latest round

      Seed
      €9m / Sep 2021

    • Total funding

      €9m

    View company profile
  • Breyta logo

    Sifted score

    7.3
    -

    Breyta

    • Serial founder(s)

    • Year founded

      2022

    • HQ

      Oslo, Norway

    • Latest round

      Seed
      €4.5m / Sep 2022

    • Total funding

      €8.0m

    View company profile

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