Aug 9 (Reuters) - Customer relationship software firm

DevRev has raised $100.8 million in series A funding round from

Khosla Ventures and others, as interest in firms utilizing

artificial intelligence continues to grow.

The latest funding round has brought the Palo Alto-based

company's valuation to $1.15 billion, marking its entry into the

unicorn club.

WHY IT MATTERS

The AI boom has reinvigorated venture capital funding, with

investors making significant bets on AI startups in hopes of

substantial returns from widespread AI adoption.

Investments in AI startups skyrocketed to $24 billion

from April to June, more than doubling the previous quarter's

figure, according to data from Crunchbase.

As of 2024, 38 startups have a valuation of over $1 billion,

with the Elon Musk-led xAi leading the pack with a valuation of

$24 billion, according to Techcrunch.

CONTEXT

DevRev which was founded in October 2020 by former Nutanix

chief executive officer Dheeraj Pandey, is an AI-driven Customer

relationship software provider which helps connect end users,

sellers, support, product people, and developers on a common

platform.

Khosla Ventures, which has been backing DevRev since 2021,

has also backed several high-profile names, such as Instacart,

DoorDash, and Stripe.

QUOTE

"Design will play a key role in building trust with end

users, who have inevitably begun to witness the AI hype cycle of

broken prototypes and bespoke one-off GPT wrappers that are

inherently unmaintainable and not secure," said Dheeraj Pandey,

CEO of DevRev.