goodcall Secures $4M Funding & Partners with Yelp

Addressing the Challenges of Unanswered Calls for Small Businesses

Many local businesses struggle to consistently answer incoming phone calls, even when fully staffed. Goodcall aims to resolve this issue for the approximately 30 million small businesses operating across America.

Goodcall's AI-Powered Conversational Platform

Goodcall provides a free, cloud-based conversational platform that utilizes artificial intelligence to efficiently manage inbound phone calls and enhance customer service for businesses of varying sizes.

Bob Summers, a former executive from Google, founded Goodcall in January after identifying a significant problem. His experience within Google’s Area 120 – an internal incubator for experimental projects – highlighted that a substantial 60% of calls directed to merchants often go unanswered.

The Impact of Missed Opportunities

“Both the caller and the business experience frustration when a call isn’t answered,” Summers explained to TechCrunch. “Each unanswered call represents a potential lost opportunity for engagement and revenue.”

Seed Funding and Key Investors

Goodcall officially launched on Wednesday, backed by $4 million in seed funding. This investment was spearheaded by a group of strategic investors including Neo, Foothill Ventures, Merus Capital, Xoogler Ventures, Verissimo Ventures, and VSC Ventures.

Angel investors also participated, notably Harry Hurst, the founder and co-CEO of Pipe.com, and Spencer Rascoff, a co-founder of Zillow.

Simple Setup and Multilingual Support

Restaurants, retailers, and other merchants can quickly establish a Goodcall presence within minutes. The service allows businesses to secure a dedicated local phone number, protecting the owner’s personal mobile number from becoming the primary business line.

Initially available in English, Goodcall intends to expand its language capabilities to include Spanish, French, and Hindi by the year 2022.

Features and Call Analysis

Merchants have the ability to select from six distinct assistant voices. They can also access detailed call logs and gain insights into the nature of each conversation.

Furthermore, Goodcall is capable of gauging consumer sentiment during calls, as noted by Summers.

Pricing Options

The company offers a tiered pricing structure:

• Freemium: Up to 500 minutes per month for a single phone line, ideal for solopreneurs.
• Pro ($19/month): Supports up to five additional locations and five staff members.
• Premium ($49/month): Provides unlimited locations and staff access.

Growth and Future Development

During its beta testing phase, Goodcall successfully processed several thousand calls monthly. The recent funding will be allocated towards maintaining the free service, expanding the engineering team, and continuing product development.

Strategic Partnership with Yelp

Alongside the funding announcement, Goodcall revealed a partnership with Yelp. This collaboration will leverage Yelp’s extensive database of local businesses to facilitate easy deployment of the Goodcall service.

Yelp’s data encompasses crucial information such as a merchant’s operating hours, location, Wi-Fi availability, and current COVID-19 policies. Over 500,000 businesses have launched since the start of the pandemic, according to Yelp data.

Democratizing Conversational AI

“Our partnership with Yelp, possessing the most comprehensive data on small businesses, and other significant distribution channels, will accelerate our product’s market reach,” Summers stated. “We are introducing technology to an industry that has seen limited innovation since the 1980s, and we are making conversational AI accessible to small businesses – the primary engine of job creation – to support their growth.”