Berlin-based Parloa has raised $350 million in Series D funding from existing investors, valuing the six-year-old customer service AI startup at $3 billion. The round comes just eight months after the company raised $120 million at a $1 billion valuation.
The new round was led by General Catalyst, with participation from returning backers including EQT Ventures, Altimeter Capital, Durable Capital, and Mosaic Ventures.
Parloa is one of many startups developing AI agents that promise to automate the kinds of customer service tasks traditionally handled by human agents or help desk staff.
The company’s competitors include Sierra, which was co-founded by OpenAI Chairman Brett Taylor. The company raised $350 million in September at a valuation of $10 billion. Decagon is reportedly in talks to raise capital at a valuation of more than $4 billion. Other companies working to replace human agents with AI include established companies Intercom and Kore.ai, as well as UK-based PolyAI, which raised an $86 million round at a $750 million valuation last month.
Malte Kosub, co-founder and CEO of Parloa, doesn’t seem fazed by the competition, as he doesn’t think it’s a “winner-takes-all” category. “At the end of the day, this is one of the greatest opportunities that has ever existed in the software industry,” he told TechCrunch.
In fact, Parloa and its competitors are racing to automate a large portion of the world’s customer support workforce, which Gartner estimates to be 17 million contact center agents worldwide.
But it’s not just the size of the market that gives Kosab confidence in Parloa’s ability to win. He cited the company’s large funding raise as a sign that the startup could become a top leader in the space. “There are a lot of companies out there, but you have to look at their size and the amount of capital they have raised,” he says. “The number of competitors has decreased significantly.”
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Last month, Parloa announced annual recurring revenue of more than $50 million, which isn’t much higher than Poly AI, which is expected to have $40 million in ARR at the end of 2025, or Decagon, which reportedly has ARR “well above” $30 million. Still, Kosab seems confident that being so well-capitalized will help his startup move forward.
Parloa’s AI agents are already answering calls for large enterprise customers such as Allianz, Booking.com, HealthEquity, SAP, Sedgwick and Swiss Life, but the CEO says the goal is not just to build software that “takes calls.”
The company will invest a significant portion of its new capital into building “multi-model, contextual experiences” that will allow personalized AI agents to recognize a customer’s identity and specific needs, whether they reach out via an app, website, or phone call.
