# The AI Customer Service Vendor Wars

> A field guide to the companies building AI agents that handle customer support calls and chats. Eight names anchor the market: Infobip's messaging empire, PolyAI's natural-sounding voice agents, Cresta's real-time contact-center coaching, Botpress's open-source builder, Forethought and Amelia (both now acquired), NICE's Enlighten platform, and Quiq's Montana-built messaging stack. The story tracks the money, the acquisitions, and the shift from scripted chatbots to agents that resolve, not deflect.

## Achievements

- PolyAI has raised roughly $200M to date and reached a $750M valuation for natural-sounding enterprise voice agents.
- Infobip bootstrapped from a small Croatian village to over $1B in revenue and became the country's first unicorn.
- Cresta reached a $1.6B valuation and raised $270M+ for real-time agent assistance and virtual agents.
- Amelia (IPsoft) raised $189M+ before being acquired by SoundHound for about $80M in 2024.
- Botpress built a widely used MIT-licensed open-source AI agent platform, raising a $25M USD Series B at a $120M valuation.
- Forethought raised over $100M and built a multi-agent system before agreeing to be acquired by Zendesk.

## Latest updates

- **2025-12** — PolyAI raised $86M at a $750M valuation, a 50% jump from its 2024 round, as the fight to answer calls with AI intensified.
- **2025-11** — Zendesk agreed to acquire Forethought, folding its agentic customer-experience platform into a larger CX suite.
- **2024-11** — Cresta closed a $125M Series D co-led by World Innovation Lab and the Qatar Investment Authority.
- **2024-08** — SoundHound acquired Amelia for about $80M, expanding into finance, healthcare, retail and hospitality.

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Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-07