Decagon, a conversational AI platform focused on customer service, announced it has raised $250 million in Series D funding. The round was led by new investors Coatue Management and Index Ventures, with participation from ChemistryVC, Definition Capital, and Starwood Capital. Existing backers including a16z, A*, Accel, Avra, Bain Capital Ventures, Elad Gil, T.Capital, Forerunner, and Ribbit Capital also joined the round.

The investment triples Decagon’s valuation to $4.5 billion in just six months. The rapid growth follows a strong 2025 for the company, which signed more than 100 new enterprise customers and expanded across industries including travel and hospitality, financial services, health and wellness, and online retail.

Rethinking Customer Engagement with AI

Decagon’s approach centers on what the company calls “concierge experiences”—personalized, AI-driven interactions that aim to replace traditional customer relationship management systems. According to CEO and Co-Founder Jesse Zhang, this strategy is what’s driving adoption.

“This fast growth and large capital investment are both testaments to why our fundamentally different concierge approach to product is winning the market over and disrupting the outdated incumbent strategies,” said Jesse Zhang.

Zhang and co-founder Ashwin Sreenivas believe every customer deserves personalized treatment, and every business should have the technology to deliver it. Their vision moves beyond basic automation to create what they describe as individualized service at scale.

“We believe every customer deserves concierge treatment,” said Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas, Decagon’s cofounders. “And every business deserves the technology to make it possible.”

Why Investors Are Backing Decagon’s Vision

Lucas Swisher, General Partner at Coatue Management, sees Decagon as helping businesses adapt to a new era of commerce. As AI enables more complex transactions and interactions, the need for sophisticated customer engagement grows.

“Decagon is helping redefine how businesses engage with their customers,” said Lucas Swisher, General Partner at Coatue Management. “As AI unlocks hyperscale commerce, Decagon is enabling concierge-level interactions at scale. That’s why many trusted and innovative companies are choosing Decagon to modernize their customer experience.”

Sofia Dolfe, Partner at Index Ventures, highlighted the founders’ approach to product design. She compared their thinking to companies like Figma and Robinhood, which reimagined their categories from the ground up.

“We’re investing in Jesse and Ashwin because they’re reimagining customer experience from first principles — treating it as something to be designed with taste, intention, and delight,” says Sofia Dolfe, Partner at Index Ventures. “They’re building the early future of what’s next, even when the present feels locked in. We’ve seen how powerful that mindset can be before, from Figma to Robinhood. And once again, what seems like the foregone conclusion isn’t.”

Deployment Plans and Product Strategy

Decagon plans to use the new funding to expand its platform and serve more enterprise customers. The company has developed what it calls Agent Operating Procedures, which combine natural language instructions with code-level precision to help teams launch AI agents quickly and safely.

The platform currently achieves average deflection rates exceeding 80%, meaning most customer inquiries are resolved by AI without human intervention. Decagon positions this as proof that automation can maintain quality while operating at scale.

At the enterprise level, the technology is increasingly discussed at the board level. Companies are evaluating Decagon not just as a cost-reduction tool, but as infrastructure for revenue growth and brand differentiation. The platform empowers customer experience, product, and engineering teams to deploy AI across voice, chat, email, SMS, and other channels.

Company Background and Market Position

Jesse Zhang and Ashwin Sreenivas founded Decagon with the goal of bringing high-touch customer service to every business. The San Francisco-based company now has offices in New York City and London.

Decagon’s customer base spans multiple sectors. In travel and hospitality, clients include Avis and Budget, Hertz, Away Travel, Kindred rentals, Easy Park, Contiki group tours, and Duolingo language learning. Financial services customers include Block, Affirm, Chime, Varo Bank, Betterment, Carry, Wealthsimple, Bilt, Figure Lending, and Monarch Money.

Health and wellness brands using the platform include Oura Health, Noom, Nourish, ClassPass, SimplePractice, Spring Health, Brightside Health, and Eight Sleep. Retail and consumer clients include Mercado Libre, Hunter Douglas, 1-800-FLOWERS.COM, Ritual Cosmetics, Quince, Fi Smart Collar, and Curology. Commerce and connectivity customers include Deutsche Telekom, Grubhub, GoPuff, Fanatics Collective, Little Spoon, Misfits Market, and Flashfood.

Brian Choi, CEO of Avis Budget Group, explained why his company chose to work with Decagon. The platform allows the rental car company to move from reactive service to more proactive customer engagement.

“At Avis Budget Group, earning customer trust at scale demands operational excellence and a willingness to rethink how service is delivered,” said Brian Choi, CEO. “With Decagon, we’re moving customer engagement from reactive service to intelligent, concierge-led experiences that empower our frontline teams to resolve issues faster and more effectively. As AI becomes foundational to modern commerce, partnerships like this ensure innovation translates into meaningful outcomes for our customers and our brands.”

Investor Backing and Previous Funding Rounds

Decagon’s investor roster includes some of the most active venture capital firms in enterprise software and AI. The company has attracted backing from a16z, A*, Accel, Avra, Bain Capital Ventures, Elad Gil, T.Capital, Forerunner, and Ribbit Capital, in addition to the new investors in this round.

The company’s customer base reflects different stages of AI adoption. According to Decagon, 33% of customers had no prior AI automation before working with the platform. Another 53% replaced legacy systems such as IVRs, ticketing tools, or CRM-based agents. The remaining 14% chose Decagon over building in-house solutions. Nearly all customers had evaluated other AI solutions before selecting Decagon.

“It’s been an exciting year of fast growth and rapid enterprise adoption, but there’s still so much work to do,” added Zhang and Sreenivas. “We’re grateful to our customers, partners, and investors for backing our bold vision so far, and we can’t wait to show you what comes next.”

Origianl Creator: Ekaterina Pisareva
Original Link: https://justainews.com/companies/funding-news/ai-startup-decagon-hits-4-5b-valuation-after-series-d/
Originally Posted: Thu, 29 Jan 2026 08:05:17 +0000