Revenue
| Metric | Value | As of | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Total funding (reported at Series C) | About US$200M | May 2021 | BetaKit |
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 2021 | Series C | US$130M | US$1.2B (reported) | Spark Capital (lead); Tiger Global | BetaKit |
| 2019 | Series B | US$44M | Not disclosed | Accel (lead) | Crunchbase News |
Investors
Overview
Ada builds AI agents that answer customer service questions for large companies, across chat, email, messaging and voice. The aim is to resolve a large share of support requests automatically and pass the harder ones to human agents. Mike Murchison and David Hariri started it in Toronto in 2016, long before generative AI made "AI customer service" a crowded category.
That head start is both an advantage and a challenge. Ada has years of enterprise relationships and data on how customers actually ask for help. But it now competes with a flood of new AI startups and with large platforms adding the same features.
Funding history
Ada's best-known round is a US$130 million Series C in May 2021, led by Spark Capital with Tiger Global. It was reported at a US$1.2 billion valuation, which made Ada one of the Canadian unicorns of the 2021 boom. The company said it planned to spend the money on global expansion, growing the team past 500 people, and research and development. The round brought total funding to around US$200 million.
Before that, Ada raised a US$44 million Series B in 2019 led by Accel, one of the larger Series B rounds for a Canadian software company at the time.
We haven't found a later priced round in reliable sources. If you see one quoted elsewhere, check it against a company announcement or a primary news report first.
Revenue: what's public
Ada hasn't disclosed its revenue or ARR, and we haven't found a reliable company-reported figure. Ada sells to enterprises on annual contracts, often priced by volume of conversations, so revenue is mostly recurring. Any figure you see quoted online is likely to be a third-party estimate.
Why Ada is an interesting case
Ada raised its big round in 2021 at a price set before the generative AI wave. Since then, the technology underneath its product has changed dramatically, and so has the competition. For investors, the question for companies like Ada is whether a head start in enterprise relationships, integrations and real-world data outweighs the speed of newer, AI-native competitors. For founders, it's a reminder that a large round raised at peak valuations has to be grown into, as other Canadian companies such as 1Password have done.
What this means if you're…
Selling to Ada: an AI company competing on product quality buys compute, data tooling, evaluation and security tools, and enterprise sales support.
Buying AI customer service: Ada's long enterprise track record is worth weighing against newer vendors. Ask for reference customers in your industry.
Researching the market: Ada is a useful reference point when comparing the valuations of AI-era customer service startups with companies from the previous generation. See our guide to comparable companies.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from the public sources below. Where sources disagreed, we used the company's own announcement or a primary news report. Private-company data changes; check the date beside each figure.
Frequently asked questions
What is Ada's valuation?
Ada was valued at US$1.2 billion (reported) as of May 2021, according to BetaKit. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Ada make?
Ada is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Estimates published by third-party sites are modelled, not reported by the company.
Who are Ada's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Spark Capital, Tiger Global and Accel.
When was Ada founded and where is it based?
Ada was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.