Barcelona-based no-code chatbot builder Landbot has raised $8m Series A led by Spanish-Israeli firm Swanlaab and Spanish innovation agency CDTI, plus previous investors Nauta Capital, Fundacion BKT and Encomenda.
Landbot, which last raised funds in 2018, works with corporates including Uber, LG, T-Systems and L’Oreal, but also law firms.
At Laux Lawyers, which is an IT law firm in Zurich and Basel, a Landbot bot helps triage and direct questions, providing fairly limited but helpful details on the firm’s areas of expertise and contact details. At sprintlaw, which is an online law firm, Landbot provides an easily accessible drop-down menu of answers that it doesn’t attempt to personalise in the way that many are tempted to do.
Landbot told TechCrunch that the coronavirus pandemic has supercharged demand for conversational landing pages, as businesses look to automate higher volumes of digitally inbound customer comms. The new funding will be used to double Landbot’s team (currently 40), with hires planned across sales, marketing and engineering. 90% of Landbot’s customers are international, with 60% coming from the U.S., U.K. and Germany.
Interestingly in a Trust Radius side-by-side comparison of Landbot and Smith.ai both fare well (over 9/10 overall) but it is Smith.ai that is favoured by the lawyers who have submitted reviews.
Sonia Lakhany, a trademark attorney at Lakhany Law, gives it 10/10 and comments: “Smith.ai Live Website Chat is used by every member of my team to communicate with our clients. It handles our incoming calls and outbound calls with ease and in a timely manner. They also manage our online chat function.”
Commenting on the Series A in a statement, Juan Revuelta, general partner of Swanlaab, said: “The beauty of Landbot is in the drag and drop solution of the product. The simplicity is critical to making this product accessible to everyone across many different types of business. If you’re a small company you don’t have the luxury of time or money to solve issues in customer service or run lavish marketing campaigns.
“Landbot helps all businesses to have truly frictionless conversations with customers and exchange the data they need to make smarter decisions and scale. The team has had a remarkable 2020, and we’re excited to support them in helping more businesses this year.”
Chatbots are often treated with derision