We Just Raised $65M to Transform Customer Experiences with Human-Centered AI!

By Deon Nicholas

Since our launch in 2018, Forethought has been on a mission to unlock human potential through artificial intelligence. We didn’t just want to create a successful company; we wanted to create AI that will change the world.

Today, I’m excited and humbled to announce that Forethought has raised $65 million in Series C funding to fuel this mission! I feel so much gratitude for our incredible employees, customers, and investors who put their faith in us.

When we launched Forethought in 2018, our team included a grand total of 10 employees. We had just one product in our portfolio. It is extraordinary to see how far we’ve come and grown since then. 

Of course, grand visions don’t come without challenges. 2021 was a year that stretched me and challenged me as a CEO and as a human being more than I could have imagined. It was a year that brought pandemic-related change, more late-night strategy sessions than I could count, and emotional growth as we worked hard to build the plane as we were flying it. It was exhausting. It was exhilarating.

It made us stronger.

In the last year and a half, Forethought exploded in growth from 20 to 145 employees (“Forethinkers”, as we affectionately call ourselves), launched our Hybrid and Hubs working model, and scaled from one hub to four—including San Francisco, Lehi, Austin, and Toronto. We now have Forethinkers across several countries and continents. But we all have this shared mission. 

We grew our annual recurring revenue by 5x and tripled our customer base. We saw our vision resonate with customers, employees, and investors. We enjoyed humbling moments of recognition, from being featured on Forbes’ AI 50 2021: Companies to Watch list to being named one of their Next Billion Dollar Startups.

We’ve grown not just as a company but as people, as technologists, and managers, as leaders.

And we’re still in the first inning! We’re proud to support over 10 million human interactions annually through human-centered AI for over 100 organizations that are changing the world for their end users. And yet this planet is home to seven billion people who are too often greeted, when they need information the most, by being put on hold.

Human-centered AI has the power to radically transform how people spend their time, energy, attention, and money. To unlock human potential for the better. That means we’re only 0.01% of the way there—and that’s just in customer support.

This Series C funding solidifies our position as a leading AI company and will enable us to grow and scale the right way in 2022:

  • We’re doubling down on our world-class product & engineering teams to continue our artificial intelligence research to advance the field. We’re going to expand our complete AI platform to multiple channels, reach more customers, and improve more customers’ experiences.
  • We’re going to continue taking our product to market as we look to triple ARR yet again. Most businesses have been burned by “so-called AI” in the past. Most do not know that a complete AI platform like Forethought exists. We’re going to continue to invest in reaching our customers where they are so that everyone has the opportunity to benefit from human-centered AI that transforms the customer experience.
  • We’re doubling our team, hiring across every department. We’re the fastest-growing company in our space, and we’re going to continue at this pace to bring on the best talent on the planet and give them an environment to do the best work of their lives.

In this journey there’s a lot of adversity and a lot that you have to overcome. When you find people who genuinely go out of their way to just be humans, who are kind, humble, and hungry to win, you latch on to that.

And that is why I’m so incredibly humbled and floored by all of our honorary Forethinkers who’ve chosen to bet us in this round: Karan, Manu, Pete, Vanessa, Ashton, Effie, Guy, Evan, Gwyneth, BD, RDJ, Andrew, T, Craig, Guy, Brennan, Sarah, Matt, Jeff, Naval, Jake, Skeet, Vivek, Daniel, Chris, Jason, Andy, Taylor, Adrienne, and Gary.

It’s not every day you get to change the world and do it with amazing people, all while being supported by your heroes.

To everyone, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Let’s go do this!

Deon

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