B2B tech startup Pylon raises $17M in Series A funding led by Andreessen Horowitz

Pylon, a B2B customer service platform, has raised $17 million in Series A funding to bring together all customer communication tools used by teams into a single platform.

This latest round, which brings the company’s total funding to just over $20 million, was led by Andreessen Horowitz, with support from existing backers General Catalyst, Y Combinator, and other angel investors, the company said in a LinkedIn post.

In today’s competitive environment, customers demand real-time service, while customer-facing teams are expected to close more deals and improve retention with fewer resources. To meet these demands, companies have turned to tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Discord, bypassing traditional email and becoming an extension of the customer’s team. This approach accelerates value delivery and enhances customer experience.

However, the existing tools were originally designed for B2C interactions and fall short in the B2B space. Teams are overwhelmed with messages from customers—ranging from support requests to product feedback—leaving them to sift through which ones require immediate attention.

Pylon is addressing this gap by building a platform specifically for B2B customer communication. It integrates ticketing systems, customer success platforms, omnichannel tools, and product feedback mechanisms into a single platform, making it easier for teams to manage and prioritize customer conversations. This unified approach helps businesses streamline their processes, ensuring that customer interactions are handled efficiently without drowning in a flood of messages.

Marty Kausas, Pylon’s CEO and co-founder, shared that the company’s initial focus on omnichannel communication was just the beginning. Customers were looking for a more comprehensive solution.

“When we first launched, we noticed that enterprises were shifting their customer interactions from email to shared Slack channels and Microsoft Teams,” Kausas explained to TechCrunch. “But we soon realized that the need was far greater than just omnichannel monitoring. There was a clear opportunity to unify all the tools that B2B teams rely on.”

Pylon Founders: Advith, Robert, and Marty

Many businesses have been managing an array of specialized SaaS tools, but this approach has become increasingly cumbersome. Pylon offers a single solution to replace disparate tools, bringing together ticketing systems, customer success platforms, AI support bots, and knowledge base products.

Since its launch two years ago, Pylon has been adopted by fast-growing companies like Hightouch, Panther Labs, Sardine, and Semgrep.

Pylon was founded in 2022 by Advith, Robert, and Marty. Advith and Robert met at Caltech and later connected with Marty during the Kleiner Perkins Fellowship. The founders, who previously worked as software engineers at companies like Airbnb, Samsara, and Affinity, started Pylon after noticing a shift in B2B communication from email to chat channels like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Discord, WhatsApp, and Telegram.

After consulting with hundreds of enterprise software companies, it became evident that real-time communication was increasingly expected in the B2B space, driving better outcomes for customers. In this challenging environment, leaders are under pressure to enhance and scale customer experience without expanding their teams.

Pylon San Francisco Office