Though virtual assistants and chatbots only entered the industry spotlight fairly recently, they’ve been around in some form or another for over a decade. One of the earliest players in this space is Interactions LLC, a Massachusetts-based provider that secured a $56 million investment yesterday to expand its lead.

The company claims that it’s processed more than two billion customer support calls and chat sessions since entering the market in 2004. Moreover, Interactions chief executive Mike Iacobucci told TechCrunch that his firm has significantly improved its virtual assistant software along the way to the point where up to 98 percent of questions are now recognized correctly. He admitted the system only achieves an accuracy rate in the “high seventies” when handling certain complex phone inquiries, but that still gives it an edge over many of the newer competitors out there.

Another factor working in favor of Interactions is the fact that its software takes relatively little effort to set up on a large scale. In contrast, startups like the recently funded DigitalGenius Inc. must spend weeks tuning their chatbots for the requirements of every client before deployment. And that’s still quick in comparison with the amount of time needed to build a virtual assistant from scratch using Facebook Inc.’s Bot Builder, which makes the do-it-yourself route impractical for all but the most tech-savvy organizations.

Interactions’ investors are betting that its mature technology and established track record will help win over traditional enterprise CIOs, who generally prefer to go with an established provider over a fresh-fade startup. The outfit is already heading in the right direction: It claims to have seen revenue more than double on an annualized basis last year. This week’s funding, which was provided by Revolution Growth, NewSpring Capital, Comcast Ventures and a number of existing backers, should help increase the company’s momentum even further.

Interactions’ Iacobucci said the funds will be used to develop new features both for his firm’s primary voice-based virtual assistant offering and its textual service, which is facing particularly intense competition nowadays. Barely a week seems to go by nowadays without some new startup raising capital for a chatbot and there are already dozens of players out there vying for a share of the market.

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