Voiceflow Completes $3.5M Seed Funding Round Led by True Ventures
Image Credit: TechCrunch
Today Voiceflow announced that over the past five months, it has raised $3.5M in a seed funding round led by True Ventures and with participation from ProductHunt founder Ryan Hoover, Eventbrite founders Julia and Kevin Hartz, InVision founder Clark Valberg, Webflow founder Vlad Magdalin, and Fancy founder Jack Einhorn. The company is a design and development platform for voice applications and intends to use the funds to scale its platform and user base. Braeden Ream, Voiceflow CEO and co-founder commented,
With Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant enabled devices in nearly half of U.S. households, every modern business will need a well-designed conversational interface to be discoverable by voice. Voiceflow is here to make that process easy.
This news comes after Invocable, formerly known as Storyline, announced mid-April that it is shutting down and transitioning users to Voiceflow because it did not see a clear path to success as an independent business today. Invocable also created a platform for the design and development of voice applications.
Voiceflow was created in 2018 and claims to have supported over 7,500 users designing and building around 250 voice apps before the addition of Invocable users. The company also raised $500,000 last year according to Pitchbook and added a high profile angel investor later in the year.
Build Voice Applications With No Coding
Voiceflow is designed to be non-technical, allowing users to organize blocks in a drag-and-drop interface. It also has an API block for enterprise customers, giving businesses the opportunity to integrate their own API’s into a voice application. The platform is free for individuals, and the business model is available for $29/month complete with a collaborative environment for multiple people to work in.
Additionally, Voiceflow has developed Voiceflow University which currently includes video tutorials but will expand to include a standardized training course.
While all of these features make Voiceflow a company with great potential to grow, the biggest reason True Ventures invested, according to Tony Conrad of True Ventures, is the unprecedented interaction between Voiceflow and its userbase.
The company avidly uses Facebook to interact with a community of more than 2,500 developers, linguists, educators, designers, and entrepreneurs. Voice application design and the development process are heavily discussed topics amongst the community. Tony Conrad told TechCrunch,
After I left the [pitch] meeting and I started digging around a little bit, the thing that blew me away was the engagement of the community of developers. That’s unlike anybody else. The single biggest differentiator of this platform is actually Braden and the team’s engagement with the community. It reminds me of early WordPress.
What This Means For the Voice Community
Invocable’s news that it was shutting down was a bit of a blow to the morale of the voice community, and lots of conversation ensued after the announcement discussing the idea that perhaps the platform was a bit too early to truly be appreciated. The news surrounding Voiceflow’s investment, however, should act as a reminder that voice is most certainly a developing and growing field.
Invocable, Formerly Known as Storyline, is Shutting Down, Transitioning Users to Voiceflow
