– Belay, an Atlanta, GA-based virtual staffing company that offers assistants, bookkeepers, social media strategists, and website specialists services, received a strategic investment from private equity firm Tenex.
– The amount of the deal was not disclosed.
– The investment will enable the company to continue to expand operations and its business reach.

– Cognigy is a Düsseldorf, Germany-based provider of a Conversational AI platform for omnichannel Customer and Employee Service Automation.
– Company raised $44m in Series B funding.
– The round was led by Insight Partners with participation from DN Capital, Global Brain, Nordic Makers, Inventures and Digital Innovation and Growth.
– The new investment will be used to accelerate company’s global customer growth, create new partnerships, and continue to enhance its platform capabilities for companies to speed up enterprise-grade AI adoption.

– Hyro is a conversational AI company.
– The company raised $10.5m in Series A funding.
– Spero Ventures led the round and was joined by Twilio and Mindset Ventures, and existing investors Hanaco Ventures, Spider Capital, and Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.
– The company plans to use the funding to hire top talent across all departments as it continues to build out its Adaptive Communications Platform to enhance its customers’ web, mobile and call center solutions while also expanding its presence across key industries where it is already experiencing strong traction.

– Sherpa, a startup from Bilbao, Spain that was an early mover in building a voice-based digital assistant and predictive search for Spanish-speaking audiences, has raised some more funding to double down on a newer focus for the startup: building out privacy-first AI services for enterprise customers.
– The company has closed $8.5m funding.
– The funding is coming from Marcelo Gigliani, a managing partner at Apax Digital; Alex Cruz, the chairman of British Airways; and Spanish investment firms Mundi Ventures and Ekarpen.
– The funding is an extension to the $15m Sherpa has already raised in a Series A.
– From what I understand, Sherpa is currently also raising a larger Series B.

– Boston, Massachusetts-based AdmitHub, a startup developing a chatbot platform aimed at boosting student enrollment and graduation rates, today revealed it has raised $14 million in a series B round led by Rethink Education.
– The company, which also announced it will be rebranding as Mainstay, plans to put the funds toward expanding its workforce and acquiring new education customers.

– Cognigy secured funding from Global Brain, one of Japan’s largest venture capital firms.
– The funding will enable Cognigy to capitalize on its position as a leader in Conversational AI and customer service automation in high-growth markets such as the Asia-Pacific region.
– As customer expectations continue to evolve, Cognigy’s top priority is to equip contact centers with AI-first technology to resolve customer issues at unmatched speed and consistency.
– Its robust Conversational AI platform easily integrates into existing tools to successfully scale support and permeate more channels for customers.
– Built on the premise that Conversational AI could rival the power of customer service agents with the same human-like quality at lower costs, Cognigy aims to catalyze this unique convergence of conversation and processes.