Benchmark Leads $24M Funding Round for 11xAI’s AI Employee Initiative

11xAI, a fast-growing AI startup specializing in building AI bots for process automation, recently secured $24 million in a Series A funding round led by Benchmark. The company, originally founded in London, has now relocated its headquarters to San Francisco, joining a wave of AI startups making the city their base. Hasan Sukkar, the company's founder and CEO, explained that the new funds would be used to enhance product development and expand their team, currently numbering 27 employees. Despite the relocation, 11xAI plans to retain its London office.

Founded in 2022, 11xAI raised an initial $2 million seed round led by Project A Ventures, and since then has gained significant traction in the tech space. The startup's key offering is its "automated digital workers," AI agents that can manage repetitive tasks and workflows, freeing up human employees to focus on more strategic activities. The company's core market lies in go-to-market teams, particularly in sales, marketing, and revenue operations. Their first AI product was Alice, an AI sales representative, followed by the recent launch of Jordan, an AI phone representative capable of holding real-time conversations for up to 30 minutes. Sukkar emphasizes that Jordan sounds like a real human and is highly intelligent in carrying out conversations.

As 11xAI approaches $10 million in annual recurring revenue, the company has already secured prominent customers such as Brex, Datastax, and Otter. Looking ahead, Sukkar revealed plans to launch two more AI digital workers in the coming months, further building out a suite of integrated virtual employees. These agents will have specific job roles and categories they are trained to handle, complete with names and faces to make them more personable in their interactions.

One of the key differentiators for 11xAI’s digital workers is their ability to operate in 25 languages, including Swedish, Italian, German, and Hebrew. Sukkar mentioned that while they had initially planned to launch bots named James and Bob for talent acquisition and HR tasks, they opted to prioritize the release of Jordan, the AI phone representative. The company’s long-term vision is to fully automate manual processes with highly skilled AI agents, eliminating the need for human intervention in repetitive workflows. Sukkar believes that this transition to autonomous agents will be transformative, comparing its potential impact to the advent of the internet or cloud computing.

However, the company faces competition from large established players like UiPath, ServiceNow, and Salesforce, as well as a growing number of other AI startups in the space, including Docket, Regie.ai, AiSDR, and Artisan. Despite the crowded field, 11xAI has captured the attention of prominent investors, including Sarah Tavel, a general partner at Benchmark, who led the Series A round and has now joined the startup’s board. Tavel has written extensively on the role of AI in work software and is bullish on the potential for 11xAI to revolutionize workflows.

Sukkar noted that the Series A round attracted significant interest from investors, with the company receiving eight investment offers in just ten days. They ultimately chose to partner with Benchmark due to the alignment of vision and Benchmark’s strong track record. Other investors in the round include 20VC, Project A, Lux Capital, and SV Angel. With the new funding, 11xAI will continue to develop its AI-driven automation tools and grow its workforce, with the majority of its key staff relocating to San Francisco.

Sukkar’s inspiration for starting 11xAI came from his early work experiences, where he found himself bogged down by monotonous and repetitive tasks. He saw the potential for AI agents to automate these processes and unlock human potential, freeing people to focus on more meaningful work. By building intelligent digital workers, 11xAI is helping companies streamline operations and redefine what’s possible in the workplace.