Draper Esprit : joins $120m Series D round for portfolio company, Aircall

Draper Esprit is pleased to announce our follow-on investment in Aircall, a French cloud-based phone business. The US$120 million round values Aircall at more than $1 billion was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management with Draper Esprit participating alongside other existing investors. Aircall joined the Draper Esprit portfolio in May 2018 when we led the company's Series B round, we also participated in Aircall's Series C round in May, 2020. Aircall is the second French unicorn in Draper Esprit's portfolio in less than two weeks following the recent Series C for Ledger, a digital asset and cryptocurrency business.

Aircall plans to use the funds to continue its mission of innovating a new era of cloud communications. The company plans to enrich its app ecosystem with new integrations across use cases, expand further globally with new European offices in London and Berlin and deeper investments in North America and APAC. It is also looking to partner with major telecommunications companies to bring its technology to a wider audience, as well as enhancing its technology with new AI capabilities and additional productivity features for call centres such as transcription and speech analytics.

Olivier Pailhes, co-founder and CEO of Aircall, said:

'Since the beginning of Aircall, we've helped thousands of companies to enrich their customer experience through voice channels, with more empathy than ever in the past year. We also witnessed an increasing demand for visibility and data about teams and performances. Now that hybrid, on-site or remote teams are likely here to stay, we'll continue to work to achieve our vision, and empower every professional to have richer conversations. With that in mind, the investment by Goldman Sachs, and the renewed trust of our current investors validates this vision.'

Stuart Chapman, Director at Draper Esprit, added:

'Aircall is well placed to take full advantage of the huge structural shifts that are taking place. Not just in the way we work, with remote working and digital transformation resolutely here to stay, but in the way we interact with businesses. Customers demand a better and more personalised interaction with a business and Aircall is in a position to help companies achieve that. It is also fantastic to see another French unicorn in the Draper Esprit portfolio. As my colleague Will Turner notes, we have known for many years the potential within the French the tech ecosystem. Companies like Aircall and Ledger demonstrate the opportunity and we're delighted to support for the long term.'

Posted on 23 Jun 2021

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