Romanian AI startup DRUID attracts $15 million in order to expand globally

Furthermore, DRUID will extend its technological leadership by adding new capabilities to its conversational AI offering and constantly evolving on the user experience promise.

The current financing round was led by Karma Ventures and Hoxton Ventures, joined by GapMinder, who consolidated its position from the previous round, and four other investors from Germany, Switzerland, Poland, and Romania.

As mobility and digital enablement become ubiquitous in people's daily lives, entire industries are being pushed towards digital transformation to ensure the consumer centricity required to thrive in the future. The new business environment that has emerged over the past two years has resulted in the rapid acceptance and an ever-increasing need for AI-powered intelligent virtual assistants. DRUID's AI-driven conversational business applications allow businesses to enhance the user experience for both customers and employees. The company provides enterprises with unique conversational capabilities and enables intuitive, natural, and frictionless digital interactions.

"The fresh round of funding will be used to strengthen our global reach and ambitious international goals. Following our vision to deliver a virtual assistant for every employee, DRUID is a global leader in AI-driven conversational business applications that assist organizations in delivering their digital transformation agendas. Leveraging our market-validated platform, our goal is to empower businesses worldwide in using DRUID solutions to secure customer loyalty and boost employee retention for businesses of all sizes. We are going beyond the present typical constraints of conversational solutions to create a new category of products, Conversational Business Applications (CBA), that will enable AI to successfully drive complex processes and help people achieve better business results.", said Liviu Drăgan, CEO of DRUID.

The present investment follows another year of rapid growth for DRUID and is intended to pave the way for future progress. DRUID reached a 3.8x Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR) growth rate at the end of December 2021 compared to 2020 and already achieved a 2.8x growth at the end of Q1 2022 compared to the same period last year. The new funding will be used to accelerate the company's international expansion and footprint and increase platform versatility. DRUID intends to open new offices in France and Germany, by the end of 2022, and consolidate its existing presence in the UK and US. Human capital is also a critical aspect in accomplishing the required expansion. Thus, the company intends to make recruitment a strategic priority this year and boost its worldwide team by 60%.

“DRUID is our first investment in Romania. UiPath has let the whole world know about the great potential of the Romanian tech ecosystem and we are glad that we have an opportunity to work with Liviu Dragan and his team on another fast-growing software company.”, said Kristjan Laannemaa, Founding Partner, Karma VC.

"At Hoxton, we back businesses from Europe that can scale globally. We’re excited by DRUID’s growth in the U.S. and are confident that with this new funding, it will grow into the category leader for Conversational Business Applications.", said Hussein Kanji, partner at Hoxton Ventures.

"DRUID has grown extremely fast since its launch due to its innovative AI-driven conversational chatbot platform, the talent of the team to expand fast internationally and build an eco-system, and its transformation towards a conversational business applications platform. GapMinder’s follow-on participation in this funding round reaffirms our confidence in DRUID’s team and its vision to provide each employee with an intelligent virtual assistant. We will continue to stand for DRUID and support the company’s plans for international expansion and consolidation.”, added Dan Mihăescu, Founding Partner GapMinder BV.

Starting with 2019 DRUID was the first company to give voice to RPA robots, adding conversational skills to the world's first hyper-automation platform through its global alliance with UiPath, the market leader in the robotic business process automation. Further developing this journey, DRUID will continue to integrate with leading RPA technology providers. Strategic connections and a global network of more than 130 partners enable the rapid application of DRUID technology in any country. As a partner-driven organization, DRUID's objective is to empower its partners and meet the benchmark of 1,000 customers serviced globally, by 2024.

Last year, DRUID was the winner of the Growth Star award in the Deloitte 2021 CE Technology Fast 50 ranking, having the fastest natural growth rate of 6,753%, in the 2018-2020 period. Also, DRUID was named a “Hot Vendor in Conversational AI” in the 2021 Aragon Research report, a Conversational AI Innovator according to IDC, and a Major Contender in the Conversational AI market according to Everest Group (Conversational AI – Technology Vendor Landscape with Products PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2021 - Aug 2021).