Artificial Intelligence · Profile from AI Research Companion
Decagon
The San Francisco customer-support agent company founded in August 2023 by Jesse Zhang (CEO) and Ashwin Sreenivas (CTO), two repeat founders who had each sold a previous start-up, which builds AI "concierge" agents that resolve customer inquiries across chat, email, SMS and voice for consumer and technology brands. Decagon is Sierra's closest AI-native rival but took the opposite side of the pricing argument: it offers both per-conversation and per-resolution pricing and says most customers choose per-conversation, arguing that outcome pricing breeds disputes over what "resolved" means (company, December 2024) (section 11). It raised four rounds in under two years — a ~$35m Series A (June 2024), $65m Series B (October 2024), $131m Series C at $1.5bn (June 2025) and $250m Series D at $4.5bn led by Coatue and Index Ventures (January 2026) — and ran its first employee tender at $4.5bn (March 2026). Unlike Sierra, it has disclosed little about revenue: ARR passed eight figures in late 2024 and nothing since (TechCrunch, March 2026).
At a glance
- Founded
- August 2023, San Francisco, by Jesse Zhang (CEO) and Ashwin Sreenivas (CTO; some sources say president); the pair met at an Andreessen Horowitz retreat in Utah (Bloomberg, reported)
- Headquarters
- San Francisco; offices in New York and London; expansion into Brazil (September 2026) and Benelux (September 2026) (company)
- Ownership / structure
- Private. Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Accel, Bain Capital Ventures, Coatue, Index Ventures, A*, Avra, Bond, Definition, Elad Gil, Forerunner and Ribbit Capital (reported)
- Leadership (2026)
- Jesse Zhang (co-founder, CEO; earlier founded Lowkey, a game-clip app sold to Niantic in 2021); Ashwin Sreenivas (co-founder, CTO; earlier co-founded Helia, a real-time video AI company sold to Scale AI in 2020)
- AI products
- Decagon AI agents for chat, email, SMS and voice; Agent Operating Procedures (AOPs, natural-language workflow instructions; date verify); Decagon Voice (Voice 3 and the Chord speech model, October 2026); Duet Autopilot (June 2026) and Duet Apprentice (October 2026); Agent Modules; Generative Analytics (September 2026); Experiment Hub (October 2026); Personal Agent Gateway and the PACT protocol for third-party personal AI assistants (October 2026)
- Scale
- ARR "eight figures" (late 2024, last disclosed; TechCrunch); >100 large customers and >100 new enterprises in the prior fiscal year (January–March 2026, company/reported); >300 employees eligible for the March 2026 tender; third-party estimates of ~$100m revenue in 2026 are unverified
- Capital raised
- ~$35m Series A led by Accel with a16z (June 2024; seed from a16z); $65m Series B led by Bain Capital Ventures (October 2024); $131m Series C at $1.5bn led by a16z and Accel (June 2025); $250m Series D at $4.5bn led by Coatue and Index (January 2026); total ~$481m (reported)
- Key partnerships
- Together AI (inference; named customer of Together); Databricks (enterprise data, September 2026); Plaid (financial accounts, September 2026); OpenAI's B2B marketplace (October 2026, company)
- Signature moves (incl. setbacks)
- Founding and the Series A launch (2023–24); the Series B and eight-figure ARR (2024); per-conversation pricing against outcomes (2024); Decagon Voice and the Chime case (2025); the $1.5bn Series C (2025); the $4.5bn Series D (2026); the first employee tender (2026); Dialogues 2026, personal agents and international expansion (2026)
8 strategic moves analysed
Each one gets a full strategy file in the companion: context, the decision, the financing, what happened, and the lesson.
2023
Founding and the Series A Launch
Founding / funding round / launch
2024
65m Series B and Eight Figure ARR
Funding round / revenue milestone
2024
Per Conversation Pricing Against Outcomes
Pricing
2025
131m Series C at 1 5bn
Funding round
2025
Decagon Voice and the Chime Case
Product launch / customer win
2026
250m Series D at 4 5bn
Funding round
2026
Dialogues Personal Agents and Expansion
Product launch / partnerships / international expansion
2026
First Employee Tender Offer
Secondary sale (employee tender offer)