Sierra Technologies, an AI startup founded by ex-Salesforce exec Bret Taylor and former Google leader Clay Bavor, has raised $175 million, boosting its valuation to $4.5 billion from earlier this year.

The funding round was led by Greenoaks Capital Partners, with additional backing from Thrive Capital and Iconiq Capital, bringing Sierra’s total funding to $285 million.

Bret Taylor, also chairman of OpenAI, brings rich experience from his roles at Salesforce and in developing Google Maps, while co-founder Clay Bavor offers expertise from his leadership on products like Gmail and Google Drive at Google.

Sierra’s core values are trust, craftsmanship, and customer obsession. Its platform provides a conversational experience, enabling clients like WeightWatchers and Sirius XM to enhance customer service through AI-driven language processing and human-like reasoning.

Sierra combines large language models from providers like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta for accurate customer interactions. On October 9, 2024, Sierra introduced its AI agent’s capability to handle live phone conversations, adapting to the “language of the company” with a specific service context.

This funding round places Sierra alongside giants like OpenAI, as customer support proves to be a successful application of conversational AI. However, it faces competition from major tech players, including Salesforce, OpenAI, and startups like Intercom, Decagon, and Maven AGI.

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