Even though the virtual-assistant market has gotten incredibly crowded over the past few quarters, the venture capital community continues backing new entrants. Paris-based CallDesk is the latest beneficiary.

The startup has secured a $2.5 million investment from Point Nine Capital and EQT Ventures, an arm of Swedish private equity giant EQT Partners. CallDesk will use the capital to expand the features of its customer service platform. The product enables companies to deploy voice-enabled virtual assistants for handling common support calls.

Retailers, for example, can use CallDesk to provide information about order status and handle cancellation requests. A bank could in turn could apply the platform’s voice authentication features to helping customers verify big transactions. The startup offers more general-purpose capabilities too, such as the ability to collect details before a caller is routed to a human support agent.

CallDesk’s versatility is facilitated by a programming interface that makes it possible to pull data from a company’s  internal systems. This multipurpose approach sets the platform apart from many other enterprise virtual assistants, which for the most part have a fairly narrow focus.

The basic value proposition is the same, however. Relegating repetitive requests to a virtual assistant frees up human representatives to focus on more urgent calls while eliminating the response delays that often occur during peak hours, when contact center staff is stretched thin.

At the same time, it’s worth noting that the technology is not perfect. TechCrunch quoted CallDesk co-founder Vincent Gire as saying that the platform has an average call success rate of 80 percent. But automating even four out of every five of the most common support requests a company receives can make a noticeable impact.

As part of its efforts to enhance the offering, CallDesk plans to introduce more ways of tailoring virtual assistants to an organization’s specific operational profile. Adding customization features will be essential if the startup is to win large enterprise accounts.

This is especially true amid the growing competition in the support automation segment. Last month, for example, publicly-traded LogMeInc Inc. joined the fray by acquiring a chatbot startup called Nanorep Technologies Ltd. Not every virtual assistant platform provides voice support as CallDesk does, but that will likely start changing over time.

Image: CallDesk