From Bridging Dev and Rev to Becoming a Unicorn

“With us, what you see is what you get, anytime all the time!”, said Dheeraj Pandey.

DevRev, an AI-driven startup founded in October 2020 by Dheeraj Pandey and Manoj Agarwal, has been at the forefront of transforming the intersection of product development and customer engagement through innovative AI initiatives. Development, or Dev, represents product, while revenue, or Rev, represents the client. Their goal is to bridge the gap between employees committed to customers and those focused on products, enhancing productivity and fostering a customer- and product-centric culture throughout the organization.

Funding Milestones

“Today, every company is a software company, yet we isolate developers (dev) from customers and revenue (rev),” said DevRev CEO Pandey. “By removing the bureaucracy between makers and consumers — with APIs, design, and an opinionated engagement model — we will empower devs to create customer-conscious products and businesses. That’s our mission: bring dev and rev together!”

DevRev has successfully secured substantial funding to fuel its ambitious vision. The company started with $50 million in seed funding and raised over $85 million in seed funding from investors like Khosla Ventures and Mayfield Fund. More recently, it completed a $100.8 million Series A funding round, elevating its valuation to $1.15 billion. The now unicorn is set to do a lot of hard work and work for customers in the coming years. 

AI Initiatives

DevRev’s platform leverages AI to enhance collaboration between developers and customers, focusing on several key initiatives:

• AgentOS Platform: A paradigm change from conventional, inflexible processes to dynamic, AI-driven automation is represented by DevRev’s AgentOS. AgentOS, which is based on an extensive knowledge graph, enables AI agents to manage complicated tasks on their own by utilising “skills” that can adjust to a variety of confusing inputs. Detailed, step-by-step workflow mapping is no longer necessary with this system since the AI automatically chooses the best course to take in order to get the desired results. AgentOS enables organisations to improve productivity, simplify processes, and remain flexible in the constantly changing digital environment by providing characteristics like fault tolerance, explainability, and the capacity to manage ambiguous data. The company says, “Our AI agents ( AgentOS ) are not just an extension of AI, but an extension of your team to make your enterprise’s intelligence and operational capabilities 10X better.” 

• Turing AI: The Turing AI agent streamlines support by handling user queries through two modes: suggestion and auto-response. In suggestion mode, Turing provides answers based on your knowledge base, which support agents can review and adjust before sending. In content-powered mode, Turing automatically responds to user queries by generating answers from the knowledge base and verifies their usefulness with the user. If Turing encounters a question it cannot handle, it offers users the option to rephrase their query or routes the conversation to a support agent. This dual-mode approach helps in efficiently managing customer interactions, ensuring timely and accurate responses while maintaining the option for human intervention when needed. Beyond simple escalation, DevRev Turing AI helps agents create personalised and suggested solutions with generative AI to expedite the resolution of queries. It also ensures a more seamless engagement with clients by simplifying technical vocabulary and changing the tone to promote straightforward communication.

Integrating AI isn’t a hassle anymore.

But, If your process feels like a recipe for disaster, it’s time to switch up your ingredients.

AI integration has come a long way, and with DevRev, it’s now simpler than ever.

DevRev’s Turing AI streamlines and speeds up AI adoption,… pic.twitter.com/0hZDS5kjuL

— DevRev (@devrev) July 29, 2024

• gr·ai·ce Initiative: Inspired by Grace Hopper, the rapid evolution of AI has had a profound impact across industries, but its effects on professionals in customer support, sales development, and other roles are often overlooked. Many of these workers view AI as a threat due to its potential to disrupt their job security and create uncertainty about the future of their roles. Despite these concerns, AI presents opportunities to boost productivity, automate repetitive tasks, and enhance work quality. Women, who represent over half of the workforce, are particularly vulnerable, as studies indicate they are 1.5 times more likely to face job displacement due to AI. Historically, women have had less access to STEM education and are more likely to take career breaks, exacerbating the challenge of staying relevant in a rapidly changing job market. Recognizing these issues, DevRev’s gr.ai.ce initiative aims to build a supportive community that empowers women to navigate AI advancements confidently. By fostering leadership in AI innovation and promoting diversity in the field, the initiative seeks to enhance career opportunities and shape the future of work, ensuring women play a crucial role in driving progress and adaptation.
  
• With its flexible “pay as you go” pricing structure, DevRev’s PLuG enables companies to test out advanced functionality and features without having to commit to anything long-term. Using this method, businesses may experiment with different products and services before making a purchase, allowing them to easily incorporate next-generation capabilities into their user experience. PLuG, a complete in-app engagement and observability platform from DevRev, is made to improve consumer interactions by combining functions like chat, session recording, AI-powered search, and analytics into a single SDK. With the ability to respond to client enquiries with customised results or give comprehensive insights via heatmaps and session replays, PLuG provides a scalable and adaptable solution for companies of all kinds. 

• DevRev is transforming the SaaS industry by addressing the complexities of traditional software-as-a-service models. According to Dheeraj Pandey, co-founder of DevRev, “SaaS 1.0 brought about the ease of on-premise software systems, but over time, it has become too fragmented with isolated CRM tools for different departments like sales, marketing, and support.” DevRev is bridging this gap by building a comprehensive knowledge graph that consolidates data across departments, which is then processed by large language models (LLMs) and fed into a cloud data warehouse for visualization and analytics. This approach, which Pandey refers to as “SaaS 2.0,” allows businesses to have a unified view of their products, customers, and revenue streams, enabling more informed decision-making and better customer engagement.

DevRev’s AI-powered platform is designed to cater to companies of all sizes, from startups to large enterprises, offering advanced capabilities like custom LLMs, session replays, and enterprise-grade security. “We are built for interactive apps, as well as analytical apps, which SaaS 1.0 has not done a good job of at all,” says Pandey. Their focus on creating a seamless experience across both desktop and mobile platforms is a key differentiator, allowing them to serve diverse customer needs.

The company emphasizes values such as authenticity, antifragility, ambition, and attention to detail, which are integral to its work environment and culture.

“Similarly, at DevRev, our overarching purpose is to grant our employees the gift of time to focus on meaningful work. When entrusting a project to someone, we ensure they have the tools and information to handle it optimally. We share data transparently, empowering them to make swift decisions and prioritize work contributing to our company’s growth.” said Manoj Agarwal, Co-founder of DevRev

Future of DevRev

DevRev’s platform is trusted by over a thousand companies, including major players like Uniphore, BigBasket and Goodmeetings. Its AI-driven solutions are transforming customer relationship management by reducing churn and increasing product velocity. DevRev is transforming customer engagement by integrating AI-driven solutions like predictive analytics and advanced chatbots into its platform. With features such as the Turing bot for proactive support, the PLuG in-app engagement center, and the Trails feature for omnichannel strategies, DevRev is committed to creating seamless, personalized, and efficient customer experiences that align with the evolving needs of businesses and their customers. 

As for their plans in India, DevRev is heavily investing in the region’s talent pool, recognizing the complementary skills in backend and frontend development across cities like Bengaluru, Chennai, and Mumbai. “Our Bengaluru centre is more AI-focused, Chennai is more UI, and the new Mumbai centre is a mix of the two,” Pandey notes. 

DevRev is currently hiring for an exceptional team. Look no further if you would like to make a change in the Saas world and more!