Symend, a Canadian startup that helps businesses recover customer debt, announced Thursday it closed on a $52 million investment round, which it will use to innovate its platform and grow its Denver-based team.
Co-founders Hanif Joshaghani and Tiffany Kaminsky say Symend is not a collections agency. Rather, the platform combines behavioral science, artificial intelligence and machine learning to help companies understand their customers’ behaviors and then develop individualized solutions for those who are past due on payments. The goal is to avoid “talking at” these customers and, instead, positively engage with them through empathetic messaging.
“At Symend our north star has always been to save at-risk consumers from negative outcomes,” Joshaghani told Built In via email. “We are taking the terrible and predatory way of doing business and applying AI to make what is typically a very negative experience a positive one.”
According to the company, Symend’s size has tripled in the last year and is expected to grow to more than 200 employees across its offices in Toronto, Calgary and Denver by the end of this year.
While he did not specify exactly how many positions will be filled, Joshaghani says the company is looking to “exponentially grow the team” in the States, with Denver serving as its main sales office. Symend will also be filling roles in its behavior science, client success, marketing, account management, data science and development teams.
“Denver is uniquely positioned in the U.S. to reach the major U.S. telcos and finance institutions. The talent that is located in Denver is excellent for a company like Symend and we have already attracted some top sales people in the city,” Joshaghani said. “Symend has treated 10 million consumers and we are on track to treat approximately 100 million by the end of 2020. We are also very excited about growing our team throughout North America, and expanding into new verticals and geographies.”
