The contact center industry has typically been notoriously slow to adjust to emerging technologies. It’s not for lack of desire to improve service capabilities and deliver better customer experiences, but more so out of a fear of alienating customers who are used to the status quo. It all goes back to the old adage, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
But, in the context of a digital, mobile, cloud- and app-centric world where customers and employees alike are spending so much of their time on websites, social media, messaging apps, email, and video chats, legacy customer service is “broke” and needs to be fixed.
That’s what Edify Labs seeks to do with its contact center platform. TMC CEO Rich Tehrani recently used the word “revolutionize” to describe what Edify is doing to the industry, from both usability and cost perspectives.
“The company combines a cloud-based contact center with drag-and-drop tools, an API, unified communications and machine learning in an easy-to-try, -buy and -use solution,” he wrote. “It has taken the complexity of the contact center and smashed it with a rock, and then took the rock and broke apart the way we used to pay for contact center solutions.”
Using technologies like WebRTC, which makes engaging with customers simple, combined with AI and machine learning for sentiment analytics, and full unified communications integration, Edify sees its platform not just as a contact center application, but a complete Business Communications as a Service (BCaaS) solution.
“The hard truth no one has wanted to confront is that existing contact center technology lags astonishingly far behind the technology we all carry around in our pockets, and we decided that’s just not acceptable anymore,” said Cameron Weeks, Edify co-founder and CEO.
Venture capital firm First Round Capital clearly agrees with Tehrani and Weeks and is leading a $10 million round of seed funding for Edify Labs. First Round has a history of identifying revolutionary brands, having previously worked with companies like Uber (which keynoted ITEXPO 2019), Roblox, and Warby Parker before they become recognized brand names. It’s not surprising that Edify has come up on First Round’s radar. Bill Trenchard, a partner at First Round Capital, has a legacy in the contact center industry, having founded LiveOps back in 2000 and building it into a $100 million revenue company.
“Sometimes an entrepreneur comes along with an idea to change an industry that has been the same for decades, and we want to get involved,” said Trenchard. “When systems are big and broken at multiple points, they’re ripe with opportunity. With great execution, they can transform the lives of thousands or millions of people and that’s why we’ve chosen Edify.”
Edify will use the capital to increase its market presence and build its teams to continue to build and deliver a product that delivers on the promises of cloud computing, machine learning, real-time communications, and customer experience.
Edited by
Erik Linask
