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South African startup FinChatBot has raised a ZAR1.6 million (US$123,000) seed funding round to allow it to increase its customer base and further develop its platform.

Launched last year, FinChatBot uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help insurance companies increase their conversion rates and reduce call centre costs.

Its chatbot platform Holly allows customers to make queries, and can be integrated into any website. FinChatBot has secured a number of major South African insurance companies as clients.

The ZAR1.6 million funding round was led by business angel Richard Marsden, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Envision Risk. It will be used to help FinChatBot further increase its client base while also developing an even more sophisticated AI platform.

Two developers have already been hired to integrate complex machine learning algorithms to further enhance behavioural predictions and streamline the user experience.

FinChatBot raised its seed funding after a six-month incubation period at the Cape Town-based Far Ventures incubator.

“We seek to penetrate a niche market with tremendous untapped potential. Our investor shares our vision, our goals and is able to add considerable value to our business in our current state of expansion,” said Far Ventures co-founder and CEO Romain Diaz.

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