Relevance AI
VC lens - The Memo Series This Sydney Startup Is Building the AI Workforce. And Investors Are All In. Relevance AI just raised $37M to replace your entire ops team with AI agents. Here's what that actually means.
Mahalaxmi Ravichandran Vijayakumari
3/12/20264 min read
The Company at a Glance
Name: Relevance AI
Founded: 2020
Headquarters: Sydney, Australia (with offices in San Francisco)
Founders: Daniel Vassilev, Jacky Koh, and Daniel Palmer
Team size: ~124 employees (as of mid-2026)
Total funding raised: US$37.2M across 3 rounds
Backed by: Bessemer Venture Partners, Insight Partners, King River Capital, Peak XV Partners (formerly Sequoia India & SEA), Galileo Ventures
What Does Relevance AI Actually Do?
Here's the rookie explanation.
Most automation tools are great at rule-based tasks: "if this happens, do that." Think of a basic chatbot or a simple workflow trigger. They work fine until a task requires actual judgment, reading context, making decisions, and handling nuance.
That's the ceiling that traditional automation tools kept hitting. And that's exactly the gap Relevance AI is trying to fill.
Relevance AI built an agent operating system that enables subject-matter experts, not just engineers, to build AI agents that can handle tasks requiring judgment and contextual decision-making.
Translation for the rookie: businesses can now build their own customised AI agents without writing a single line of code that can handle complex workflows from start to finish. Think AI agents that handle sales outreach, process customer queries, run data analysis, or manage entire back-office functions.
Two of their newest features are "Workforce", a no-code multi-agent system that helps non-technical professionals build specialised teams of agents that collaborate like human employees, and "Invent," a tool that lets users create AI agents using simple text prompts.
Basically, you describe what you want the agent to do, and the platform builds it for you. No engineering degree required.
The Funding Journey
Relevance AI's fundraising story is a masterclass in building conviction early and scaling fast.
Pre-seed (2020): Early days, product in development, small raise to get started.
Seed round (December 2021): Led by US fund Insight Partners, raised about 8 months after the pre-seed, as the product started gaining traction.
Series A (Late 2023): Raised A$15 million, led by King River Capital and Peak XV. This was the signal that the ANZ startup ecosystem believed in what they were building.
Series B (May 2025): Raised $24 million, led by Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the most respected VC firms in Silicon Valley, known for backing companies like LinkedIn, Shopify, and Twilio. This is the round that put Relevance AI on the global map.
Total raised: US$37.2M. Not unicorn territory yet, but the trajectory is pointing firmly upward.
Why Did Investors Say Yes?
The growth numbers are hard to ignore.
Relevance AI reported 40,000 AI agents registered on its platform in January 2025 alone. That kind of adoption curve, especially in enterprise software, is exactly what Series B investors want to see before writing a cheque.
Customers include SafetyCulture, Airwallex, and Mirvac locally, as well as global brands like Microsoft and Unilever. When you've got Microsoft and Unilever using your product, the "will anyone actually pay for this?" question is pretty much answered.
The market timing also works in their favour. AI startups pulled in about $202 billion of venture capital in 2025, close to half of all global VC, and the momentum has only continued into 2026. Relevance AI is sitting right in the middle of the hottest investment theme of the decade.
The Market They're Playing In
The AI agent space is getting crowded fast. Relevance AI competes with players like Retell, SmythOS, Gooey.AI, and even incumbents like Salesforce, which has made a big bet on AI agents.
But here's their differentiator: Relevance AI is tool- and model-agnostic, allowing customers to leverage their entire tech stack across their business rather than being locked into a single vendor's ecosystem.
In plain English, most competitors lock you into their own tools. Relevance AI plugs into whatever you already use. For enterprise customers with complex, existing tech stacks, that flexibility is a massive selling point.
The "Why Sydney?" Factor
This is the part that should genuinely excite anyone following the ANZ startup scene.
Relevance AI is a Sydney-founded company that has attracted investment from Bessemer Venture Partners and Insight Partners two of the most prestigious US venture firms. That's not common. It's a signal that ANZ is producing globally competitive AI startups that don't need to relocate to Silicon Valley to win.
Galileo Ventures, one of their early backers, noted that they invest early in technical founders with conviction, around a problem space they have "earned insight" in founders who've worked hard and put the reps in. That's exactly the kind of backing that gives a Sydney startup the credibility to compete globally.
The Risks - Because Every Memo Needs This Section
Intense competition. The AI agent space is moving at breakneck speed, and well-funded competitors are everywhere. Salesforce, Microsoft, and a dozen well-funded startups are all building in this space simultaneously.
Enterprise sales cycles. Selling to large organisations is slow and expensive. Even with great product-market fit, scaling enterprise revenue takes time and a serious go-to-market machine.
AI dependency. Relevance AI's product is built on top of large language models. Changes in model pricing, capability, or availability (from OpenAI, Anthropic, etc.) could impact their product and margins.
Valuation pressure. In a frothy AI funding environment, Series B valuations can get stretched. If growth slows, the next raise could be harder than expected.
The Rookie Takeaway
Relevance AI is doing something genuinely interesting, democratising AI agents so that any business, not just the ones with engineering teams, can build and deploy them. The product is real, the customers are real, and the investors backing them are top-tier.
For anyone interested in the intersection of AI, enterprise software, and the ANZ startup ecosystem, this is a company worth watching closely.
The AI workforce revolution is happening. And a Sydney team is right at the centre of it.
The Numbers at a Glance
Founded - 2020
HQ - Sydney, AU + San Francisco, US
Total Funding - US$37.2M
Latest Round - Series B - $24M (May 2025)
Lead Investor - Bessemer Venture Partners
Other Backers - Insight Partners, King River Capital, Peak XV, Galileo Ventures
Employees - ~124 (mid-2026)
Key Customers - Microsoft, Unilever, Airwallex, SafetyCulture, Mirvac
Competitors - Salesforce Agentforce, Retell, SmythOS, LangChain
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