Interface.ai raises $30M to help banks field customer requests

Interface.ai, a customer automation platform for banks and other financial institutions, today announced that it closed a $30 million funding round led by Avataar Venture Partners.

Twenty million dollars of the round was equity, while the remaining $10 million was in the form of debt. It’s Interface’s first outside capital; the startup had been completely bootstrapped.

“Interface is trusted by more than 100 financial institutions across North America, processing millions of interactions every day,” CEO and co-founder Srinivas Njay told TechCrunch. “We’re generating tens of millions in annual recurring revenue.”

Njay said that the inspiration for Interface came from his father, who owned a credit union in India. Previously, Njay worked at Microsoft as a product manager on the Bing advertising team and at EA as a senior product manager on mobile games.

Njay teamed up with Bruce Kim, the founder of customer management and billing company Inovaware, in 2019 to launch Interface.

“The big national banks are investing heavily in AI to transform their banking operations,” Njay said. “But for many regional and community-based financial institutions, staffing and resourcing this capability is simply out of reach. Interface democratizes access to AI.”

Interface’s core product is a collection of voice- and text-based AI agents designed to handle basic bank customer service requests. Powered by models trained on in-house data, the agents can perform tasks like helping modify mortgage payments and opening new accounts.

Banks can customize the agents by fine-tuning them on their internal data. The agents can also be configured to upsell products based on information like the content of prior chats.

“Our AI is specifically designed for the banking industry,” Njay said, “complete with pre-built integrations, data models, and workflows.”

Financial institutions are piloting AI — and in particular generative AI — for applications ranging from customer service to predictive analytics. According to a March survey cited in American Banker, more than half of global and U.S. banks intend to implement generative AI at some level over the next year.

Besides Interface, AI startups trying to nab a slice of banks’ business include Hyperplane, which builds AI models to predict customer behavior; Cambio, which creates AI to talk to a bank’s customers; and Digital Onboarding, which specializes in strengthening banks’ relationships with customers.

Banking customers are wary of the tech, however. In a J.D. Power poll, only 27% said that they’d trust AI for financial information and advice, while less than half said they’d take product recommendations from AI.

Institutions also aren’t necessarily deploying AI for customer communications — which is a big portion of Interface’s business. But in a spot of bright news, credit unions — one of Interface’s largest customer segments — have been aggressively adopting chatbot tech this year.

“Our platform has multiple levers for creating value,” Njay said. “The number of unique applications of AI is one of the main factors contributing to Interface’s ability to weather potential headwinds.”

With the new money from the funding round, Interface plans to expand its 120-person team across North America and India and “accelerate go-to-market initiatives.”

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