By Aditya Soni

(Reuters) -HappyRobot, an artificial intelligence startup that automates communications including rate negotiation and appointment booking for freight operators, has raised $44 million in a funding round led by Base10 Partners.

The San Francisco-based firm did not disclose its valuation in Wednesday's statement. A source familiar with the deal said the Series B round valued HappyRobot at around $500 million.

Existing investors Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator also took part in the round, along with new backers such as Tokio Marine, WaVe-X and World Innovation Lab.

HappyRobot has now raised nearly $62 million since its founding in 2022. The startup, whose more than 70 enterprise customers include DHL, Ryder and Flexport, supplies companies with a clutch of AI agents that can handle critical but routine tasks that would have otherwise needed several human workers.

Venture capital firms have been pouring billions of dollars into AI startups, even as tariff-driven economic uncertainty hits funding for other sectors. But that has raised worries of possible saturation and increased competition for the firms.

HappyRobot is betting its in-house tech and logistics know-how, tightly integrated with freight systems and tailored on-site by engineers for each customer, will allow it to stand out from general-purpose AI voice startups such as ElevenLabs.

"Being verticalized" gives HappyRobot an edge over more general purpose competitors who might be "clueless about the operations and the intricacies of these industries," Pablo Palafox, co-founder and chief executive officer, told Reuters.

The approach appears to be paying off.

The company said its revenue growth has increased 10 times since the previous Series A funding round late last year, as it helps customers handle more freight, collect payments, recruit staff and reduce resolution time for scheduling.

HappyRobot will use the new funds to hire more product, on-site and sales teams, as well as to improve its software and expand its AI-powered assistants. It currently has an over 70-member strong team, mostly based in San Francisco and Madrid.

(Reporting by Aditya Soni)