Yolo Investments has made a $1.8M investment in Proto, a leader in multilingual contact centre automation.
The investment will support Proto’s expansion within emerging markets, concurrent with nationwide deployments of its AI Customer Experience (AICX) platform across financial sectors in Africa and Southeast Asia. Proto’s AICX platform is powered by proprietary natural language processing technology for historically-underserved languages, such as Tagalog, Twi, and Kinyarwanda. Most recently, the inclusive chatbot technology is driving results for stronger consumer protection legislation in countries such as the Philippines — with a 4x usage surge during the pandemic — and support from the African Development Bank for multi-country central bank deployments.
Yolo Investments GP Tim Heath said: “We are huge fans of Proto’s tech-led approach to transforming the enduser experience. The company is a perfect match for Yolo Investments, particularly with its unparalleled expertise across emerging markets. We see significant opportunities to apply its solutions across our network. And with Proto backed by a world-class team which is absolutely focused on the enduser, we’re excited to support the company into the future.”
Proto CEO Curtis Matlock said: “The experience of the Yolo team within Proto’s verticals and emerging markets is unmatched. We’re working closely together on the expansion of regulatory partnerships for deploying Proto’s conversational consumer protection solutions for local and underserved languages. Proto is driven to position itself as the CX automation vendor of choice for the emerging world, where inclusive and localized communication technology is essential.”
About Yolo Investments
Yolo Investments is a venture capital fund focused on seed- and A-stage investment opportunities across fintech and gaming. Based in Estonia, Yolo’s mission is to invest in outstanding people with bright ideas, who are focused on innovating and disrupting the norm in all manner of tech startups. Founded in 2020 by Tim Heath, Yolo has created a thriving ecosystem with ventures across a variety of industries, including financial services, crypto, blockchain, media, gaming and software development.
About Proto
Proto is the leader multilingual contact centre automation in emerging markets. Proto’s AI Customer Experience (AICX) platform is powered by proprietary natural language processing (NLP) for under-resourced and rare languages. The Proto team has successfully developed novel deep-learning techniques and regulatory partnerships to maximise consumer experience, protection, and lifetime value across 20+ emerging markets.
