ConverseNow is a technology company.
ConverseNow has raised $18.0M across 2 funding rounds.
ConverseNow has raised $18.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
ConverseNow is a Voice AI company founded in 2018 and headquartered in Austin, Texas, that builds customizable AI-powered virtual assistants to automate and personalize restaurant orders across channels like phones, drive-thrus, voice assistants, and kiosks.[1][2][3][4] It serves restaurant owners, operators, frontline staff, and guests in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) sector, solving high-pressure challenges in fast-paced voice ordering by handling repetitive tasks, boosting customer satisfaction, increasing average ticket size through personalized upsell recommendations, and freeing staff to focus on food preparation.[1][3][5] The company has raised $28.3 million in funding, including a $10 million round, and reports $9.9 million in revenue, with growth momentum shown through partnerships like a Wingstop pilot across 1,900+ locations and millions of processed conversations.[2]
ConverseNow was co-founded in 2018 by Vinay Shukla and Rahul Aggarwal, engineering college classmates who bonded over innovation and later built successful careers at firms like UBS, Barclays, and Unilever.[1] After co-founding Endeavor Software Technologies in 2002, scaling it, and selling to Genpact in 2016, they pivoted to AI, launching ConverseNow from Austin to revolutionize restaurant voice ordering with a vision to act as a "digital best friend" for restaurant teams.[1] Early traction came from their team's deep foodservice and tech expertise, evolving into a proprietary AI platform that has served millions of conversations and secured major pilots like Wingstop in 2023.[1][2]
ConverseNow rides the AI automation wave in the $1 trillion+ global restaurant industry, where labor shortages, rising wages, and demand for frictionless ordering amplify the need for voice AI in QSRs.[1][4] Timing aligns with post-pandemic shifts to digital drive-thrus and kiosks, plus generative AI advances enabling natural, predictive conversations that boost upsell without alienating guests.[3][5] Market forces like Wingstop's expansion favor it, as chains seek scalable tech to handle volume; ConverseNow influences the ecosystem by setting standards for hybrid, customizable voice AI, enabling operators to compete with delivery apps while retaining control.[2]
ConverseNow is poised for explosive growth as voice AI matures, with national rollouts from pilots like Wingstop and potential enterprise deals accelerating adoption amid ongoing labor crunches.[2] Trends like multimodal AI integration (voice + vision for menus) and edge computing for faster drive-thrus will shape its path, while expanding multilingual capabilities taps global QSR markets.[5] Its influence could evolve from niche innovator to industry standard, empowering restaurants to reclaim margins from third-party platforms—transforming voice ordering from a bottleneck to a revenue engine, much like its founders' earlier software success.
ConverseNow has raised $18.0M in total across 2 funding rounds.
ConverseNow's investors include 2048 Ventures, Avaana Capital, Capital Factory, Craft Ventures, Floodgate, foobar.vc, Fractal Growth Partners, Hack VC, Helion Venture Partners, Navitas Capital, Next Coast Ventures, Night Capital.
ConverseNow has raised $18.0M across 2 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $15.0M Series A in June 2021.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2021 | $15.0M Series A | 2048 Ventures, Avaana Capital, Capital Factory, Craft Ventures, Floodgate, foobar.vc, Fractal Growth Partners, Hack VC, Helion Venture Partners, Navitas Capital, Next Coast Ventures, Night Capital, QueensBridge Venture Partners, Silverton Partners, Spark Capital, Stellar Capital, Thirty Five Ventures, Trajectory Ventures, Twenty Two Ventures, Uncorrelated Ventures, Underscore VC, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator, Amit Gupta, Breon Corcoran, Ilya Golubovich, Immad Akhund, Mark Cuban, Mark Pincus, Matthew Dellavedova, Michael Ma, Mitch Garber, Odell Beckham Jr., Steve Aoki | |
| Apr 1, 2020 | $3.0M Seed | Capital Factory, Floodgate, Next Coast Ventures, Silverton Partners |