Gradient Labs, a UK-based AI company focused on customer support in regulated industries, has raised over £9.5m in Series A funding. The investment will be used to grow its teams across technology, marketing, sales, onboarding and customer success, and to deepen its research and development efforts.
The round was led by Redpoint Ventures, with backing from Localglobe, Puzzle Ventures, Liquid 2 Ventures and Exceptional Capital.
Founded in 2023, Gradient Labs builds AI tools tailored for complex and regulated environments. Its AI agent, Otto, is designed to learn the specific products and internal processes of a business, allowing it to manage advanced customer enquiries in a safe and dependable way.
The company was founded by Dimitri Masin, Neal Lathia and Danai Antoniou, who previously worked together at UK fintech Monzo. Their experience includes leading automation in customer operations and financial crime controls within major financial institutions.
In regulated sectors, the cost of a single customer service interaction can reach £10, yet expectations are rising. Two-thirds of customers now expect a response within minutes, and one in three will leave a brand after just one negative experience. Meanwhile, 87% of service agents report high levels of work-related stress.
While AI tools have begun to ease some of the strain, many existing solutions are limited to simple frontline queries, which only represent a quarter of overall customer operations costs. Gradient Labs aims to remove repetitive tasks across the entire service chain, including back-office operations that are typically overlooked.
According to the company, Otto can resolve up to 90% of customer requests and meets a 98% quality assurance standard. The system is said to outperform both human agents and standard chatbots, while delivering cost savings of up to 75%.
