Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher Invest in Forethought

<p><strong>SAN FRANCISCO<&sol;strong> &&num;8212&semi; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cts&period;businesswire&period;com&sol;ct&sol;CT&quest;id&equals;smartlink&amp&semi;url&equals;http&percnt;3A&percnt;2F&percnt;2Fwww&period;forethought&period;ai&amp&semi;esheet&equals;52551133&amp&semi;newsitemid&equals;20211214006409&amp&semi;lan&equals;en-US&amp&semi;anchor&equals;Forethought&amp&semi;index&equals;1&amp&semi;md5&equals;0ad00c32b82356085c851c80e6178740" target&equals;"&lowbar;blank" rel&equals;"nofollow noopener" shape&equals;"rect">Forethought<&sol;a>&comma; the Human-Centered AI Platform&comma; announced a &dollar;65 million Series C funding round that will fuel the company’s growth and accelerate the digital transformation in customer service with human-centered AI&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The pandemic pushed individuals and businesses alike to quickly move to digital channels and processes&comma; a shift that many weren’t prepared for&comma;” said Deon Nicholas&comma; Co-Founder &amp&semi; CEO of Forethought&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We’re helping companies transform their customer experiences&comma; and this funding round will allow us to rapidly expand our research&comma; product development&comma; and marketing to do just that&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>STEADFAST Capital Ventures led the investment and was joined by previous investors NEA&comma; Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures&comma; and K9 Ventures&period; New investors Collaborative Fund&comma; Frontline Ventures&comma; Cleo Capital&comma; and Spearhead joined the round&comma; as did A-list notable individual investors&comma; including Gwyneth Paltrow&comma; two-time NBA All-Star Baron Davis&comma; Robert Downey Jr&period;&comma; Trevor McFedries&comma; Kensho CEO Daniel Nadler&comma; Dr&period; Christopher Manning&comma; IronClad CEO Jason Boehmig&comma; HumanFirst CEO Andy Coravos&comma; Taylor Greene&comma; and Adrienne Harris&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As part of the funding round&comma; Karan Mehandru&comma; Managing Director and Head of Venture Capital at STEADFAST Capital Ventures&comma; will join Forethought’s Board of Directors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We believe there is a massive opportunity in the market to leverage the power of human-centered AI to automate a significant portion of the customer experience workflow as customer interactions race to being digital and online&comma;” said Mehandru&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Forethought is the fastest-growing company in this emerging space with raving customers in every vertical&comma; and their best-in-class team and technology are transforming the customer experience for some of the most important organizations of our time&period; We&&num;8217&semi;re thrilled to be partners on this journey and couldn’t be more excited to be investing in Deon&comma; Sami&comma; and the Forethought team&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This raise comes on the heels of a breakout year for the company where Forethought increased ARR by 5X&comma; tripled its customer count&comma; and now supports over 10 million human interactions annually on behalf of its customers&period; This highlights a critical need amongst customer service teams for better support technology that doesn’t sacrifice the customer experience&comma; especially as companies scale&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;At Goop&comma; our entire business revolves around the customer&comma;” said Gwyneth Paltrow&comma; renowned actress&comma; author&comma; and Goop CEO&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When I saw how Forethought’s AI can transform the customer experience&comma; I knew there was something special here&period; Human-centered AI will change the world&period; I’m proud to be a Forethought investor and I can’t wait to see what the future holds&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;