Pypestream

The Pypestream platform drives an engagement interface called a Pype that uses conversational AI within a graphical user interface. It gained popularity due to the high cost of assisted-service engagements versus the minuscule cost of self-service engagements, coupled with the brand-enhancing experience delivered by a Pype.^[5][6] It is used for customer service, employee service, recruiting, patient service, traveler service, marketing, and other automated engagement use cases. Pypestream couples AI-driven natural-language understanding (NLU) with a widget-based GUI that encourages pointing, swiping and gestures.^[3][7]

In late December 2015, Pypestream's mobile application launched in beta.^[3][7]

By April 2016, the company had 500 businesses signed up and using the messaging platform, including Washington Gas and Billboard.^[3][8] The same year, the company was named in the Red Herring list of 100 most exciting startups in North America^[9] and announced a partnership with Discovery Health, the largest medical scheme administrator in South Africa, in order to include the Pypestream technology in the app for members of Discovery Health Medical Scheme.^[10] In July 2016, Pypestream partnered with Insurance Thought Leadership to create a messaging platform specialized for insurance customer service. As of 2016, there were over 12,000 businesses using Pypestream since its launch in December 2015.^[11]

In February, 2017, Pypestream raised $15 million in funding from Rick Braddock and The Chattergee Group.^[12]

In 2018, Pypestream was named one of the four Hot Vendors in Conversational AI by Aragon Research.^[13] Its current clients include Allianz, EY, Google, Sling, Brown & Brown, and Shell.^[14][1][15] The company has been granted five patents by the U.S. Patent Office^[16] and secured $15 million in funding by W.R. Berkley, bringing their total up to $35 million.^[1][17]