Relevance AI raises $15m in Series A amid surge in clients for its low-code platform

Sydney-based tech startup Relevance AI has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by AI specialist venture capitalist King River Capital amid a surge in demand for its low-code platform that empowers even small businesses to create their own AI workforces.

Relevance AI’s SaaS (Software as a Service) model has been adopted by businesses in the tech, retail, property and fast-moving consumer goods space with 6,000 clients signed up in the last three months alone to run over 250,000 tasks such as answering customer inquiries, managing outbound sales, or conducting market research.

King River Capital, which has backed the likes of blockchain game firm Immutable, digital road freight platform Ofload and AI-powered music creation platform Splash, has been joined by Peak XV’s Surge, Galileo Ventures and Insight Partners in the Series A investment in Relevance AI which says it has the potential to ‘reshape how all businesses harness AI’. 

Founded in 2020 by app developers and school mates Daniel Vassilev and Jacky Koh and later joined by founding team member Daniel Palmer, Relevance AI plans to use the fresh capital to expand internationally, specifically targeting its existing presence in San Francisco.

Relevance AI describes its mission to empower businesses, particularly small operations with fewer resources, to build their own AI workforces. The company says this comprises ‘teams of AI agents that can autonomously complete repetitive tasks’.

“Our mission is to enable teams to only be limited by their ideas, not their size – from the seasoned industry player to the ambitious newcomer,” says Vassilev.

“We take out the complexity and make it possible for AI agents to work autonomously and complete detailed workflows or accomplish complex tasks with accuracy and predictability that companies can trust.

“Working hand-in-hand with human teams, AI agents can enable businesses to scale like never before.”

Vassilev says the Relevance AI platform is leading the way in the multi-agent systems category by bringing together agents with different specialties to complete complex tasks.

“Leading ML (machine learning) teams at large enterprises, I’ve seen first-hand the challenges presented in deploying the technology and the value it can drive,’ says Koh.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen the value grow even more with Generative AI. This is going to keep compounding to the point where we envisage that the AI workforce will be the driving factor of the next doubling of human prosperity.”

The adoption of Generative AI is forecast to accelerate productivity gains for the global economy, with Relevance AI revealing that while many businesses already use AI in some form, it is ‘typically confined to supporting individuals with small parts of a single task using the search box type of interface that has defined human-computer interaction since the 1990s’.

“Relevance is the first company in the world to truly move beyond the classic search box or co-pilot interface that has predominated with generative AI so far,” says Zeb Rice, co-founder of King River Capital.

“Instead, Relevance AI unlocks this new technology's true potential through the use of pre-built components and visual interfaces that help anyone create and manage AI teams from scratch, supercharging employee productivity. It’s a game changer.”

Co-investor Insight Partners has been a big believer in Relevance AI for some time and was lead investor in the seed round which raised US$3 million ($4.5 million) in 2021.

“The scale of human productivity unleashed by Generative AI is likely to be unprecedented,” says George Mathew, the Insight Partners managing director.

“Relevance AI enables businesses to automate repetitive, costly and time-consuming tasks and to increase productivity, and we’re looking forward to expanding our partnership with the company.”

Relevance AI has two key products that have helped drive rapid growth in the business. The company’s AI tools allow customers to plug and play into their existing workflows to automate repetitive tasks, while they then can develop AI Agents that can complete entire workflows in functions like marketing, sales and research.

The latest product is the BDR agent which helps sales leaders grow their top-of-funnel by automating manual tasks like finding and reaching out to prospects, responding to questions and booking appointments.

Relevance AI, which has a team of about 20, will use the $15 million capital raise to grow its workforce with plans to open a new office next year in San Francisco where Vassilev is currently based.