Sierra, which helps enterprises build customer service AI agents, announced it raised a $350 million funding round on Thursday. The round, led by earlier investor Greenoaks Capital, values the startup at $10 billion, according to a company blog post that confirmed an earlier report from Axios on Wednesday. Sierra was founded in early 2024 by Taylor and longtime Google alum Clay Bavor. The company claims to have landed hundreds of customers, including SoFi, Ramp, and Brex, among others, in its 18 months of operation.
Taylor noted that while the dot-com bubble is often viewed through the lens of its failures, significant value and major tech success stories also emerged from that era. He stated, 'If you say dot-com, people come back with failures.' He emphasized that examining the current value in the S&P 500 showcases how warranted much of the hype truly was.
"There’s ones you can lease, there’s open source ones. Don’t do it." Taylor emphasized the impracticality of developing new AI models unless one belongs to a major player in the industry.