Forethought: 2022 Top Startups for the Enterprise

Founders: Deon Nicholas (CEO), Sami Ghoche
Launched: 2018
Headquarters: San Francisco
Funding: $92 million
Valuation: N/A
Key technologies: Artificial intelligence, machine learning
Category: Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Forethought, founded by alumni of Dropbox, Palantir and Autonomy in 2017, is a customer service AI platform that predicts and prioritizes service requests, and helps human agents access the data they need to resolve tasks fast. With the volume of customer service queries spreading across industries and digital platforms, Forethought says its approach "goes beyond an AI chatbot" using data analysis of past cases as well as sentiment analysis to reduce wait times ands backlog, and move more customers into a self-service resolution.

Customers include Marriott, Instacart and Upwork. It is already integrated with Salesforce, Zendesk and ServiceNow. The company announced a $65 million Series C funding round in December 2021 and has raised $92 million to date. Celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Downey Jr. and LL Cool J have invested in Forethought's technology. Additional investors include Steadfast Financial, NEA, Sound, Geodesic Capital and K9 Ventures, among others.