According to a report by the technology news website TechCrunch, Athens, Greece-based startup Omilia, which specializes in the automation of voice calls and customer support since 2002, has successfully completed a $67 million Series B funding round. The substantial investment was led by the venture capital firm Expedition Growth Capital. The company plans to utilize these new financial resources to continue expanding its customer support platform, open a new office in the United States, scale and strengthen its go-to-market (GTM) marketing and sales teams, and recruit new senior executives. This funding round arrives as the company is expanding its operations to develop self-learning agents capable of operating seamlessly across various customer touchpoints.
Omilia's Financial Background, Past Funding, and Rapid Revenue Growth
This round marks Omilia's second fundraising effort since its inception. In 2020, the company raised $20 million from Grafton Capital, and has since grown its annual recurring revenue (ARR) tenfold to $60 million. The company's CEO, Dimitris Vassos, explains that Omilia’s primary differentiator compared to its competitors in the market lies in its outstanding unit economics—both for itself as a company and for its clients using its solutions. Thanks to this calculated and focused economic approach, the company has not required massive capital infusions compared to other startups operating in its highly competitive field.
Omilia CEO’s Philosophy: Not Every Problem Is Solved with Generative AI
The global customer support industry has recently experienced a massive influx of young, new startups, such as Sierra, Decagon, and Parloa, which are attempting to infuse artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to fully automate customer phone calls, chats, and text messages, enabling enterprises and companies to handle growing volumes of queries at scale. However, in the view of Dimitris Vassos, CEO of Omilia, throwing complex AI solutions at every single process in contact centers could prove to be highly wasteful and extremely inefficient. Vassos emphasizes that a very substantial portion of incoming customer support queries deals with basic and simple information, such as checking a current account balance. In his view, for these simple and basic tasks, there is no real necessity or economic and technological justification for deploying and running large language models (LLMs).
"Bazooka vs. Knife" – The Need for Diverse Tools in Contact Centers
The CEO firmly clarifies his stance on how the battle for customer service should be fought: "We will use any available weapon to win the battle for customer service. Companies like Sierra, Decagon, etc. identify as generative AI companies. Their sole purpose is to deploy generative AI and limit themselves. You may have a bazooka, but if your enemy is near you, you need a knife. This is the reality of the contact center, where you need multiple tools," he said.
Return on Investment and Ambitions for $1 Billion in Revenue Within Three Years
According to Vassos, in the coming years, we will see that the companies that lead and prevail in the market are solely those capable of offering and demonstrating real return on investment (ROI) for their customers. Vassos candidly adds that his company and leadership team are not at all bothered by not being perceived as an "attractive" or "sexy" company on social networks and professional platforms like LinkedIn, particularly compared to other well-known and popular firms like ElevenLabs or Sierra. He explicitly states: "What matters to us is growing steadily, consistently, and very deliberately, and building the solid foundations and infrastructure for a company that will reach $1 billion in revenue over the next three years."
Omilia’s Customer Base and a New Focus on Quick-Service Restaurants
Omilia’s current customer roster includes a series of large financial institutions and government entities, including Capital One, Discover, RBC, DWP, and PSEG. Vassos notes that quick-service restaurants, which have begun adopting voice-based ordering systems in recent years, now represent a major and central strategic focus for the company. The company already counts fast-food giant Taco Bell as an active and significant client, having deployed its voice technology across more than 1,000 of the chain's outlets and sales points. Additionally, Vassos shared that the company is currently in advanced discussions with two more quick-service restaurant chains in the United States to deploy its solutions.
AI Deployment Challenges and the Taco Bell Ordering Incident
Despite technological promise, AI deployments can be unpredictable. In Taco Bell's case, a snafu in the ordering system was reportedly said to have allegedly allowed a customer to order an unusual volume of 18,000 cups of water last year. Vassos maintains that this incident never took place, and that Omilia's system logs did not display it. TechCrunch editors reached out to Taco Bell for clarification and will update the article if they receive a response.
Future Expansion Plans and Senior Executive Recruitment
The company will use the funds to open a new office in the United States, a market that represents a significant share of its revenues. Additionally, Omilia will strengthen its go-to-market team and is currently recruiting a Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), and a VP of Revenue Operations. The company currently employs approximately 500 workers and expects its headcount to reach 600 by the end of this year.