Cardiff-based AI firm launches crowdfunding campaign to raise £500,000

Cardiff-based artificial intelligence company We Build Bots has launched a crowdfunding campaign on Seedrs in a bid to raise £500,000.

Founded in August 2017, it’s gone on to achieve a valuation of £2 million. The tech firm, which develops customer service chatbots, has already raised 50 per cent of its funding goal.

The company’s flagship product, IntelAgent, provides customer service departments with the ability to analyse conversation data taken from chatbots.

Using this data, companies can set up automated responses for common customer queries, categories customers, create new sales opportunities and improve productivity.

We Build Bots is already working with the likes of Amnesty International, the AA driving school, Future Plc and Welsh Water. It claims to help its customers save millions of pounds each year.

It’s the brainchild of Paul Shepherd, who founded digital agency Coup Media. Last year, the company was named one of Europe’s leading start-ups by Web Summit, and it also reached the final of the Oracle Global Cloud Accelerator.

Speaking about his business and funding campaign, Shepherd said: “IntelAgent is helping companies across the utilities, automotive, charity and publishing sectors save money, make money and better engage with their customers.

“We’re delighted with how quickly we’ve reached 50% of our target raise, and we look forward to scaling our sales, development and data teams once the round is closed.”

In October 2017, the company created a chatbot for Sport Wales to help fitness enthusiasts find the best gym facilities. At the time, Paul said: “It’s great to see Welsh Sport adopting the latest technologies in their quest to get more people active with sports.

“And as a fellow Welsh business, we’re delighted to be involved. Whilst this is a fun, light-hearted bot we hope this proves to be an invaluable asset if more people become more active as a result.

He’s also a big believer in instant messaging platforms and the potential they offer for artificial intelligence technology. Shepherd said: “Messenger platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp are hugely popular.

“Facebook messenger has more than a billion active monthly users, with over 2 billion messages being exchanged between organisations and the public each month.”

“We anticipate a huge demand from millennials and centennials for connecting with organisations and businesses this way and that as a result chatbot use will continue to grow connecting people to information quicker than ever.”