Proto raised a C$5.6 million Series A funding round led by Mucker Capital with participation from Yolo Investments for the global expansion of its AI Customer Experience (AICX) solutions into new emerging markets in the areas of finance, health and government.
As reported by Newswire the Canada-based platform helps contact center operators from the Philippines to Zambia – such as National Bank of Rwanda, Bank of Ghana and Medical City Clinic – automate customer experiences in the local language. Local languages such as Cebuano, Kinyarwanda, and Twi can be notoriously difficult for chatbots to understand, due to a lack of machine learning training resources.
Proto solves this problem with chatbots powered by its proprietary natural language processing (NLP) technology and nationwide, data-heavy deployments with regulators, such as central banks, in more than 2,000 private sector institutions. . Its NLP engine – called HermesAI – uniquely understands local and mixed languages, such as Taglish (a hybrid of Tagalog and English).
Proto CEO Curtis Matlock said: “In the midst of crises that have been particularly difficult for people in the emerging world, we believe it is more important than ever for citizen engagement and customer experience to prioritize inclusion as a guiding principle.
Proto’s conversational AI deployments for local languages are at the forefront of overcoming long wait times, unresolved cases, and limited language and channel support in more than a dozen Emerging Markets.
Mucker Capital investor Joe Tsai said: “The growth in mobile and internet adoption in the emerging world is staggering, and this continued trend is inevitable.
However, due to weak support for their native languages, billions of people are still cut off from critical digital services.
Its multilingual, industry-relevant machine learning models and conversational chatbots can unlock greater inclusiveness at scale while generating significant ROI for institutions that adopt it.
We are thrilled to support Proto’s mission and partner with Curtis, Albert and the entire team.
The Proto team has four immediate priorities:
- HermesAI will open up to developers via API to share Proto’s proprietary machine learning models for low-resource languages with the widest possible consumer base. This will include automated speech recognition (ASR) and text-to-speech (TTS) capability, leveraging domain-specific data from the largest Proto deployments.
- Regulatory chatbots for more countries to strengthen financial inclusion and consumer protection across all sectors, in coordination with organizations such as the University of Cambridge’s SupTech Lab, BFA Global and the African Development Bank.
- Free live chat and sample chatbots to help multilingual contact centers look into customer support automation with the best cost and fastest time to implementation.
- Expansion of the team into new regions where Proto’s AICX solutions can make a real difference. Proto’s growth is only possible with its 95% BIPOC and 50% female team from the same countries as our clients. If you would like to join our global community, check out the roles available.
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