Softbank adds $10M to Dialpad’s Series-E funding to grow its AI-powered cloud communications platform

We first wrote about Dialpad back in May 2018 when the AI-powered cloud communications platform acquired fellow voice startup TalkIQ for nearly $50 million. Just last month, we wrote about the company again after it became a new member of the coveted unicorn club. At a $1.2 billion valuation, Dialpad joins the list of top 500 global unicorn startups.

As a sign of confidence in the company’s direction, today, Dialpad announced it has raised an additional $10 million from Japanese giant SoftBank Corp. to accelerate product expansion in Japan and APAC. SoftBank’s investment will deepen its existing, 4-year strategic partnership with Dialpad, and drive business growth and expand Voice Intelligence in Japan and the greater APAC region, leveraging SoftBank’s significant resources. In total, Dialpad has raised $250 million, at a valuation of over $1.2B, as it drives innovation in the Unified Communications and Contact Center markets.

Founded in 2011 by Alex Cornell, Brian Peterson, Craig Walker, and John Rector, the San Francisco-based Dialpad is a cloud-based business phone system that turns conversations into opportunities and helps teams make smart calls. Dialpad’s patented Voice Intelligence enables AI-powered real-time business optimization, delivered through coaching, automated note-taking, sentiment, and transcription analytics. Dialpad helps businesses and contact centers deliver amazing customer experiences while enabling employees to communicate through voice, video, and messaging, in a single platform.

“Today’s pandemic has accelerated the inevitable move to the cloud and the work from anywhere movement for business communications by at least 10 years, requiring companies to expedite digital operations and deploy smarter, more efficient cloud communication tools,” said Craig Walker, CEO of Dialpad. “Dialpad’s AI-powered single platform for voice, video, and messaging allows remote employees and contact center agents to be productive from anywhere, and have real-time insights that enhance their productivity. Our deepening partnership with SoftBank will accelerate innovation and bring our best-in-class communications tools to more companies in Japan and the broader APAC region, helping them build stronger businesses.”

The investment marks Dialpad’s fourth year working with SoftBank in Japan. Together, the partnership has helped more than 1,000 customers and 50,000 users including human resources services provider Randstad, sports brand Asics, Japan’s largest travel agency, H.I.S., and elevator and escalator manufacturer Fujitec migrate their telephony system to a cloud-based platform.

“Voice Intelligence is an untapped technology that can revolutionize the future of work,” said Kunihiro Fujinaga, Senior Vice President at SoftBank Corp.’s Enterprise Business Unit. “Unfortunately, as The Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications points out, 98% of voice calls are not fully digitalized or utilized. When voice is integrated with other cloud applications, users can learn from every conversation and gain new levels of efficiency. Together with Dialpad, we will continue to advance digital communications and elevate productivity and data insights to new heights.”

“The importance of voice communication cannot be stressed enough in today’s new work paradigm,” said Motoaki Ishii, Senior Director in charge of Digital Voice Solution Development at SoftBank Corp.’s Enterprise Product & Business Strategy Division. “To truly unlock its potential, we need to integrate it with real-time speech recognition, natural language processing, and voice analytics on a system that works anywhere, on any device. We’re thrilled to continue our partnership with Dialpad to define a new way of working.”