Respond.io raises $62.5 million to expand AI customer support platform

Respond.io has raised $62.5 million to scale a business built around a simple bet: customer support should be billed by conversation, not by seat. The Kuala Lumpur company says its AI agents now help mid- to large-sized B2C brands capture, convert and retain customers across WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Messenger, Line, Telegram, WeChat, voice calls and web chat.

Founded in 2017 by Gerardo Salandra, Hassan Ahmed and Iaroslav Kudritskiy, respond.io began as an omni-channel messaging inbox after the founders saw that customers were already turning to messaging apps while businesses lacked tools to keep up. That early product choice has since turned into a broader enterprise play, with the company marketing monthly active contacts as the core of its pricing model. Respond.io defines a monthly active contact as someone a business talks to over calls or chat during the billing month. Its pricing page lists Starter at $79 per month and Growth at $159 per month.

The new capital gives the company more room to press that model into larger markets. Respond.io is eyeing acquisitions in North America and Europe, a sign that it wants to buy distribution and deepen its reach beyond Southeast Asia rather than rely only on organic growth. The company had already signaled global ambitions in 2022, when it said it would extend beyond Asia into the Middle East, Europe and Latin America.

That expansion strategy comes on top of a history of rapid growth. Respond.io raised a $7 million Series A in September 2022 led by Headline Asia, with participation from AltaIR Capital, Smart Partnership Capital, Sterling Oak Group and Calendula Ventures. At the time, the company said revenue had grown 25 times since a January 2020 seed round of $1.8 million, while Digital News Asia reported it was processing more than 140 million messages a month. More recent company materials say respond.io serves more than 10,000 brands globally.

The funding also highlights how Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem is producing infrastructure plays, not just consumer apps. Respond.io is pitching AI agents as a measurable revenue channel for customer service, and its recognition at the inaugural TikTok Partner Innovation Awards in New York on May 14, 2026, reinforced that pitch. For Malaysia’s venture scene, the message is clear: some of the most durable AI value may be built far from Silicon Valley, inside the systems companies use every day to talk to customers.