AI Startup Sierra Raises $175M in Funding Round Led by Greenoaks Capital

Sierra, an AI startup co-founded by OpenAI chairman Bret Taylor, has secured $175 million in a funding round, valuing the company at $4.5 billion. The startup, established by Taylor and former Google executive Clay Bavor, specializes in providing AI-powered customer service chatbots to clients such as WeightWatchers and Sirius XM.

Sierra's platform includes an 'agent' component, connecting to enterprise systems to perform tasks on behalf of customers without human intervention. The company claims its technology is less susceptible to 'hallucinations' - erroneous information generated by AI models. Additionally, Sierra offers the ability for customers to personalize the AI's personality to align with their brand, utilizing a variety of generative AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others to complete tasks and ensure accuracy.

Taylor and Bavor have extensive experience in customer service technology, with Taylor's background at Salesforce and the founding of Quip, which was acquired by Salesforce for $750 million in 2016. Bavor's prior roles at Google included managing Gmail and Google Drive. Sierra's latest funding round saw participation from investors such as ICONIQ, Thrive Capital, and Iconiq, with Greenoaks Capital leading the investment. The funding round brings Sierra's total raised capital to $285 million.