FunnelAI, the marketing and sales platform that uses artificial intelligence to turn social intent and web activity into prospects for businesses, announced $1.5M in series seed funding. The round was led by Active Capital, followed by another early stage investor Geekdom Fund, UK-based retail and consumer sector investor True, and Angels from San Antonio and Houston.

“We are the industry first in connecting businesses with prospective customers in real-time from social and digital platforms by finding high purchase intents using AI. We are more comprehensive than the existing listening tools and lead gen solutions, both in terms of technology and in scope. Our solutions work for every industry, but we are hyper-focused within the auto industry, where we connect various dealerships, Auto manufacturers, E-commerce sites, Auto Financing & Insurance companies with a wide ecosystem of auto customers, needing a new car, used car, servicing, parts, aftermarket parts, insurance, financing and others,” stated Sri Kamma, CEO of FunnelAI.

"At BMW of Austin we've found that FunnelAI's powerful, yet easy to use, software allows us to stay connected with our current customers and seek out prospective customers on all of the various avenues of social platforms,” stated Chris Markey, Director at BMW of Austin - A Penske Automotive dealership.

“We topped $1 Million ARR in November 2018 within 15 months of our launch. We are very capital efficient, and a profitable 8-member startup,” Sri Kamma added. FunnelAI’s co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer Suja Kamma additionally stated, “Our seed raise allows us to hire for key functional areas and continue to focus on product innovation catered to the auto industry. We plan to expand into the next vertical in the fourth quarter of this year.”

FunnelAI’s real-time solutions include:

• Customer acquisition from social and digital platforms, community forums, and social sites.
• In-App communication capability between our app and multiple digital platforms including forums and social media.
• Customer Lifecycle Management (CLM) for businesses to proactively engage with their customers based on their life events or purchase intent.
• Hyper Ad targeting tools to curate the audiences with purchase intent and target them with relevant ads.
• Unique and specific preferences of all prospective customers, including location-based analytics.

“Businesses spend billions of dollars every year buying keywords on Google and Facebook,” said Pat Matthews, Founder of Active Capital, who led the investment round for FunnelAI. “Those channels are mature now and the biggest advertisers dominate. Funnel has created a new way for local and regional businesses to tap into consumer intent and drive customer acquisition in a totally different way.”

“We are honored to continue on the journey with FunnelAI,” said Mike Troy, Managing Director at the Geekdom Fund. “Given the difficulty every business is experiencing reaching millennial audiences, we are extremely excited for the future growth of the company as FunnelAI’s approach unlocks previously untapped audiences.”

Paul Cocker, Co-founder of True comments: “True’s seed fund looks to invest in enterprise solutions, technologies and products that will support fit for the future retail and consumer businesses – which is what we have found in FunnelAI. We’re proud to call FunnelAI our first US seed investment and are delighted that it’s selected True as its investment partner of choice in the UK as it starts to scale. We’re confident that through our sector specialist Live Network we can support FunnelAI with its international expansion, as well as its growth into new verticals, through our introductions to key decision makers in the retail and consumer sector.”

About FunnelAI:
FunnelAI was founded in 2017 with the vision to help businesses acquire customers in real-time by using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Their mission is to increase growth for businesses by pushing the boundaries of technology using big and open data for a next-generation conversational marketing and sales solutions. They offer a true AI based, deep learning & machine-language technology to automate business processes from finding prospects, hyper-targeting customers who only have high intent to purchase, to knowing customer’s journey for a proactive and repeated engagement. To learn more, please visit http://www.funnelai.com

About Active Capital:
Active Capital is a venture firm designed to lead seed rounds for B2B SaaS companies. The firm is founded by Pat Matthews, co-founder and former CEO of Webmail.us, a B2B SaaS company that was ranked #217 on the Inc. 500 fastest growing companies in America and sold to Rackspace in 2007. Active Capital is headquartered in San Antonio, Texas and invests in B2B SaaS companies in cities across America. To learn more, please visit http://www.activecapital.com.

About Geekdom Fund:
Geekdom Fund is a venture capital fund based in San Antonio, Texas, which invests in early stage tech startups. Geekdom Fund Partners’ mission is to be the most helpful investors on the companies’ cap table. Founded in 2013 and operated by Don Douglas, Michael Girdley, Cole Wollak and Mike Troy, Geekdom Fund has invested in over 60 companies across North America through four funds. To learn more, please visit http://www.geekdomfund.com

About True:

True is Europe’s only retail and consumer sector specialist that operates across the entire investment vertical. True has total funds under management of £200m and invests in retail, consumer and leisure sector business models which represent the future of the industry. True’s Live Network model brings together its private equity companies, startup and growth businesses, investors and industry partners to add value, both strategically and operationally, across the retail and consumer spectrum. To learn more, please visit http://www.true.global