Cue, a customer service software company based in South Africa, closed a $5 million funding round co-led by Knife Capital and FAM Investments. The capital will go toward voice capabilities, security improvements, enterprise integrations, and expansion outside its current markets in South Africa and the United Kingdom, according to Daba Finance.
The round follows a $2 million raise completed in early 2024.
From Chatbots to Autonomous Agents
Founded in 2015, Cue started as a customer engagement platform combining chatbots, live chat, and CRM data across WhatsApp and other social channels. The company serves more than 500 businesses, primarily in markets where WhatsApp is the default communication layer between companies and customers.
In late 2024, Cue launched its AI Agents platform, which automates routine customer inquiries, personalizes interactions, and resolves issues with less human intervention. The architecture layers autonomous agents on top of live agent escalation, analytics, and CRM data in a single interface, replacing what CEO Richard Nischk described as the disjointed legacy stack of separate ticketing, chatbot, knowledge base, and live chat systems.
“Growing adoption of artificial intelligence is changing how companies approach customer service, with businesses increasingly looking for a single platform instead of multiple standalone tools,” Nischk told Daba Finance.
Voice as the Next Layer
The funding specifically targets voice capabilities, a signal that Cue sees text-based agent interactions as table stakes. Adding voice to a WhatsApp-native platform positions the company for markets where phone support remains dominant but call center labor costs are rising.
The investment comes during a concentrated funding wave for autonomous customer service platforms. NCT has tracked over $335 million in AI customer service agent funding in the past two months, including Assort Health’s $120M Series C, Cadence’s $100M Series C, Adaptive Innovations’ $60M round, and Stepful’s $55M raise. Gartner has projected $80 billion in global contact center labor savings by 2026 as AI agents reduce support costs 20-30% per customer contact.
Cue’s $5M round is small by comparison, but its WhatsApp-native positioning in Africa and emerging markets targets a segment where US-built platforms have limited reach. The company plans to use the capital to strengthen enterprise features and expand internationally as demand grows for unified AI-plus-human support platforms.