This Cresta company profile covers the company's valuation, revenue, funding rounds, investors and history. Cresta works in artificial intelligence, with a focus on contact center AI. It was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. Its latest valuation on record is US$1.6 billion (March 2022). Every figure links to a public source, and anything the company hasn't disclosed is marked as such.
Revenue
Funding history
| Date | Round | Amount | Valuation | Investors | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nov 2024 | Series D | US$125M | Not disclosed | World Innovation Lab (WiL) and QIA (leads); Accenture, Qualcomm Ventures, Workday Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, EnvisionX; Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, J.P. Morgan, Sequoia, Tiger Global | Cooley |
| Mar 2022 | Series C | US$80M | US$1.6B | Tiger Global (lead); Genesys, Five9, J.P. Morgan, CarMax, Zoom; Sequoia, Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, Porsche | The SaaS News |
Cresta timeline
Key dates from the sources on this page, oldest first. Metric snapshots are listed after the funding events.
- 2017 — Cresta is founded in San Francisco by Zayd Enam and Tim Shi.
- Mar 2022 — Series C: US$80M, valuing the company at US$1.6B. Investors: Tiger Global (lead); Genesys, Five9, J.P. Morgan, CarMax, Zoom; Sequoia, Greylock, Andreessen Horowitz, Porsche.
- Nov 2024 — Series D: US$125M. Investors: World Innovation Lab (WiL) and QIA (leads); Accenture, Qualcomm Ventures, Workday Ventures, LG Technology Ventures, EnvisionX; Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock, J.P. Morgan, Sequoia, Tiger Global.
Investors
Overview
Cresta builds AI software for customer contact centres. Its products listen to live conversations between customers and human agents and give agents real-time suggestions, such as what to say next, which policy applies or how to handle an objection; they automatically summarise calls and fill in records afterwards; they analyse every conversation to show managers what's working; and, increasingly, they deploy AI agents that handle customer conversations on their own. Large companies in telecoms, insurance, banking, retail and travel use Cresta to improve sales and service while reducing costs.
Zayd Enam and Tim Shi founded Cresta in 2017 after meeting at Stanford's AI lab. Enam was a PhD student researching how to improve the productivity of human workers with AI, and Shi had worked at OpenAI in its early days. Sebastian Thrun, the founder of Google X and Udacity, was an early adviser and chairman. The founders' starting idea was to capture the techniques of the best-performing agents and help everyone else perform like them. Ping Wu, a former Google executive who led contact centre AI at Google Cloud, later became CEO.
Products
- Agent Assist: real-time guidance for human agents during calls and chats, including suggested responses and knowledge lookups.
- AI Agent: autonomous AI agents that handle customer conversations by voice and chat, with handoff to people when needed.
- Conversation Intelligence: analysis of every interaction to find drivers of sales, satisfaction and compliance.
- Quality Management: automated scoring of conversations against quality criteria, replacing manual sampling.
- Automated summaries and coaching: after-call notes and personalised coaching for agents.
Funding
Cresta raised early funding from Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia Capital. In March 2022 it raised an US$80 million Series C led by Tiger Global at a US$1.6 billion post-money valuation, with strategic investors including Genesys, Five9, J.P. Morgan, CarMax and Zoom. In November 2024 it closed a US$125 million Series D led by World Innovation Lab and the Qatar Investment Authority, with Accenture, Qualcomm Ventures, Workday Ventures, LG Technology Ventures and EnvisionX joining existing investors. The Series D valuation wasn't disclosed, so the 2022 figure remains its last announced valuation, and readers should treat it as a historical mark.
Business model
Cresta sells enterprise software subscriptions, often priced by the number of agents or the volume of conversations, with AI agents increasingly priced by usage. Contracts with large contact centres can be substantial because they cover thousands of agents. Strategic investors such as Genesys, Five9 and Zoom are also contact centre platform providers, which helps with distribution through their ecosystems.
Competition
Cresta competes with contact centre AI offerings from platform providers such as Genesys, NICE, Five9 and Salesforce; with Google's and Amazon's contact centre AI; with conversation intelligence firms such as Observe.AI and Uniphore; and with AI customer service agent startups such as Decagon, Sierra and Parloa. Its strengths are its long experience with large contact centres and its combination of human agent assistance with fully automated agents.
Cresta at a glance
Cresta is a San Francisco contact centre AI company founded in 2017 by Zayd Enam and Tim Shi out of Stanford. It provides real-time agent assistance, conversation analytics and autonomous AI agents. It was valued at US$1.6 billion in a 2022 Series C led by Tiger Global and raised a US$125 million Series D in 2024 led by WiL and QIA, with no new valuation disclosed.
Timeline
- 2017: founded at Stanford's AI lab.
- 2020–2021: raises Series A and B and wins large enterprise customers.
- March 2022: raises US$80 million at a US$1.6 billion valuation.
- 2023–2024: adds generative AI features and autonomous AI agents.
- November 2024: raises a US$125 million Series D.
Human agents and AI agents together
Much of the debate about contact centre AI focuses on whether AI will replace human agents. Cresta's position is that the two will coexist: AI agents handle routine requests such as order status, password resets and simple changes, while human agents handle complex, emotional or high-value conversations with AI assistance. Analytics that span both help companies decide which conversations to automate and where people add the most value. This hybrid view appeals to large enterprises that want to automate gradually without damaging customer experience.
Why contact centres invest in AI
Contact centres employ millions of people worldwide and are expensive to run. Staff turnover is high, so training is constant. Quality is uneven, and managers can review only a small fraction of conversations. AI can coach new agents faster, review every conversation, cut the time spent on notes and handle simple requests automatically. Even small improvements in conversion rates or handling time can be worth millions of dollars a year for a large centre.
Who uses Cresta
Cresta's customers include large enterprises in telecommunications, insurance, financial services, retail, travel and automotive, along with outsourcing companies that run contact centres for other businesses.
Valuation context
Cresta's US$1.6 billion valuation dates from the 2022 funding peak, when software multiples were much higher. The 2024 Series D shows continued investor support, but because its valuation wasn't disclosed, we can't say whether the company's value rose or fell. We list Cresta among unicorns using the 2022 mark, labelled with its date.
Risks
- Crowded market: many startups and incumbents offer contact centre AI.
- Platform dependence: contact centre platforms could build competing features.
- Stale valuation: the last disclosed mark is from 2022.
Questions for buyers
- Which contact centre platforms does it integrate with?
- How are AI agents tested and monitored for accuracy and compliance?
- How is pricing structured for human-assist versus automated conversations?
Latest developments (October 2026)
Cresta has not announced a priced round since its November 2024 Series D of US$125 million, which did not disclose a valuation, so its 2022 valuation of US$1.6 billion remains the latest company-confirmed figure. Third-party estimates suggest its recurring revenue approached US$100 million in 2026, but Cresta has not confirmed this. The contact centre AI market has become crowded with agentic customer service companies such as Sierra, Decagon and Parloa.
What to watch
Watch AI agent adoption, new funding or valuation news, partnerships with contact centre platforms and competition from AI-native agent startups. Our guide to unicorn companies lists comparable firms.
Takeaways
Contact centre leaders can use Cresta to coach agents, analyse every conversation and automate routine requests. Founders can see how strategic investors help distribution in enterprise markets. Investors should treat its US$1.6 billion valuation as a 2022 mark.
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 does Cresta do?
Cresta is a artificial intelligence / contact center ai company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States. It was founded in 2017.
What is Cresta's valuation?
Cresta was valued at US$1.6 billion as of March 2022, according to The SaaS News. Private company valuations are set at funding rounds or share sales and can change significantly between them.
How much revenue does Cresta make?
Cresta is a private company and has not publicly disclosed its revenue. Figures on third-party sites are usually modelled estimates rather than numbers reported by the company.
What was Cresta's latest funding round?
The most recent financing we have verified is a series d in Nov 2024: US$125M. Source: Cooley.
Who are Cresta's investors?
Investors named in public announcements include Tiger Global, World Innovation Lab, Qatar Investment Authority, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, J.P. Morgan, Accenture, Qualcomm Ventures and Workday Ventures.
Who founded Cresta?
Cresta was founded in 2017 by Zayd Enam and Tim Shi.
Is Cresta a public company?
No. Cresta is a private company (private, venture backed), so its shares are not traded on a stock exchange and it isn't required to publish its financial results.
Where is Cresta headquartered?
Cresta is headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States.