Exclusive: Sierra secures Softbank investment and Japan expansion
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Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor from Sierra. Photo credit: Chris Constantine on behalf of Axios
Sierra, which builds custom AI agents for enterprise customer service, is expanding to Japan, backed by a new investment from Softbank's Vision Fund 2, co-founders Clay Bavor and Bret Taylor announced at Axios' AI+ Summit in San Francisco on Thursday.
The big picture: AI agents are a hot topic in 2025 — though they've been Sierra's focus from the start. And it has seen rapid growth since its launch last year.
- Its founders announced in a November blog post that Sierra has hit $100 million in annual recurring revenue.
Driving the news: "More countries, more regions ... there's a lot of interest in what we built," Bavor told Axios' Ina Fried.
- Bavor noted that half of Sierra's customers do over a billion in revenue each year.
Catch up quick: Sierra announced earlier this year that it closed a $350 million funding round led by Greenoaks Capital that valued the startup at $10 billion. That came after Axios scooped the news of the impending deal.
- The startup's rapid rise signals how businesses are embracing AI agents. Deloitte predicted last year that in 2025, 25% of companies that use GenAI would launch agentic AI pilots or proof of concept, and that the number would grow to 50% in 2027.
- Still, the industry hasn't settled on a clear consensus on how to build and deploy them. Sierra is betting on a model that starts by focusing on support and customer service needs.
The latest: Sierra also announced Thursday that SiriusXM will be the first business to adopt a new Agent Data Platform designed to ensure its customer experience agents have the full context on a subscriber seeking assistance.
- The goal is to make interactions more proactive and less transactional.
- Taylor said in a statement that it gives Harmony, SiriusXM's AI customer support agent, "the context to know not just what a listener is asking for today, but what will make them smile tomorrow."
What they're saying: "We think this is a really compelling opportunity for brands to go from conversations to relationships," he told Fried Thursday.
Go deeper: Exclusive: These tech executives want to support AI agents with more AI
