Botpress secures $25M Series B to expand AI agent platform

Quebec City-based startup Botpress has secured $25 million in Series B funding to accelerate its growth in the competitive AI agent market. The round was led by Framework Venture Partners, with participation from Inovia Capital, Deloitte Ventures, HubSpot Ventures, and Decibel.

Key Points

• Botpress provides a platform for developers to build, test, and manage AI agents that automate tasks like customer service, marketing, and code debugging.
• The company aims to be the "Switzerland of AI agents" by remaining neutral among tech giants and integrating with tools like Notion, Salesforce, Shopify, and Zendesk.
• Customers can choose from multiple large language models (LLMs), including those from Anthropic, Cohere, OpenAI, and Hugging Face.

Competitive Landscape

Botpress faces competition from:

• Enterprise software providers like Salesforce and ServiceNow, which are embedding AI agents into their platforms.
• LLM developers like Anthropic and Cohere, which have recently launched their own agent-building tools.

Growth Strategy

• Double its workforce from 65 to 130 employees within a year.
• Build internal agents to better understand customer needs.
• Focus on developers who use its free plan and convert them into paying customers.

Company Background

• Founded in 2017, Botpress initially built traditional chatbots but pivoted to LLM-powered agents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In March 2023, the company launched its GPT-native platform, leading to rapid growth with thousands of clients and quarterly sales doubling in 2024.

Investor Perspective

Magaly Charbonneau of Inovia Capital highlighted Botpress's ability to scale usage and revenue, noting that "any technology can be copied," making sales and marketing strategy critical.

Market Context

The funding comes amid a tougher venture capital environment compared to the 2021 easy-money era or the 2023 AI investment boom. Investors are now scrutinizing cash burn and marketing ROI more closely.

Botpress's previous raise was a $15 million Series A in July 2021.