Consumers already regularly use text messaging to communicate with their friends and families, but now Quiq is making it easier than ever for them to text businesses, too. Quiq works by integrating multiple messaging tools into businesses' websites and apps, including SMS, Apple Messages, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, web chat, Kik, and Google's RCS-based RBM. Companies can also use native messaging apps to communicate with customers and implement a broadcast function to proactively send updates.
Now, the company has raised $12.5 million in a series B round of funding from Foundry Group as well as Teamworthy Ventures, Venrock, and Next Frontier Capital. With its new round of funding, Quiq plans to continue making its platform smarter using artificial intelligence and bots that "deliver the next generation of conversational commerce," according to the company.
Quiq co-founder and CEO Mike Myer echoed that in a statement:
"This investment validates our vision that digital engagement channels, like messaging and chat, are the future of consumer communications and that asynchronous messaging will be the foundation of the next-generation enterprise contact center."
With Quig, companies can allow consumers to choose their preferred messaging channel, and agents can also access all inbound communications in a single unified interface. Plus, the Quiq platform groups together messages from the same customer, even if that customer uses different platforms to contact the business.
And for businesses that still rely heavily on channels outside of digital messages, Quiq integrates with third-party platforms like Salesforce.com to continually provide insight into interactions happening on other channels, such as the phone.
"Large brands rely on Quiq to manage messaging at enterprise scale, which includes not just sending and receiving messages reliably at high volumes, but also the tools that contact center managers need to gauge agent performance and make sure every customer gets a response in a timely manner," Myer told VentureBeat.