08/03/2021

Nordic Capital and Boost.ai announce partnership to accelerate growth and expand conversational AI platform into new markets

Boost.ai, a global leader in conversational AI for Fortune 1000 companies, and Nordic Capital, a leading private equity firm focusing on growth companies in Northern Europe, today announced an agreement to enter into a partnership where Nordic Capital will actively support Boost.ai in its rapid expansion. Nordic Capital intends to further strengthen the Company’s strong market position by helping it to accelerate growth and expansion into new markets, working closely with the CEO and co-founders. The founders, the management team, and current owners of Boost.ai, including Finstart Nordic and Alliance Venture, will continue as investors alongside Nordic Capital.

STAVANGER—March 08, 2021— Boost.ai empowers leading enterprises and public sector organisations in Europe and North America to automate and scale customer service, support and sales. The Company offers a no-code conversational AI platform, with a strong focus on customer service and support, that helps bridge the
digital gap between brands and their customers, through the use of tailored AI-powered chatbots to meet the demand of large enterprises.

Boost.ai was founded in 2016 by CEO Lars Ropeid Selsås together with co-founders Hadle Ropeid Selsås and Henry Vaage Iversen. The Company has experienced unprecedented growth as demand for its conversational AI platform has soared. Headquartered in Stavanger, Norway, the Company has established satellite offices in Oslo, Stockholm, and Santa Monica, and employs a diverse team of more than 100 employees from 18 countries. Boost.ai’s client base consists of many of the top organisations in the Nordics such as Nordea, Telenor, Santander and DNB, and spans multiple industries including financial services, e-commerce, healthcare and the public sector. At the end of 2020, the Company had annual recurring revenue of NOK ~100 mn.

Boost.ai management team: Camilla Gjetvik (COO), Lars Ropeid Selsås (CEO & founder), Henry Vaage Iversen (CCO & co-founder), Hadle Ropeid Selsås (CCO & co-founder) [Photo by Anne Kristin Aanestad / boost.ai 2021]

Lars Selsås, Founder and CEO, Boost.ai commented: "Nordic Capital was always our first choice of partner to take Boost.ai to the next level. They share our vision of becoming a global category leader and, at the same time, can help to maintain our leadership position in the Nordic market. Nordic Capital’s investment in our Company and technology is an endorsement of our success so far, and their team’s experience and strong track record with companies at our growth stage makes me confident that we will achieve great things together.”

Nordic Capital will support Boost.ai’s rapid growth trajectory allowing for further international expansion.
Technology & Payments is one of Nordic Capital’s core focus sectors, with 18 platform investments made in the Nordic region since 2001. It has a strong and active sector network and a dedicated Technology & Payments team with local presence across Northern Europe. Nordic Capital’s previous experience in this sector includes investments such as Bambora, Trustly, CINT, Conscia,
Siteimprove, Vizrt and Signicat.

Jess Tropp, Principal, Nordic Capital Advisors commented: “We are incredibly impressed by Boost.ai’s founders, management team and employees and the company’s superior conversational AI platform which has achieved industry leading resolution rates and evidenced by very strong customer satisfaction. We believe that Boost.ai represents a rare investment opportunity to invest in a leading Nordic based SaaS company with an attractive growth outlook from increased market penetration, as well as an opportunity to support expansion and internationalisation. Nordic Capital is truly excited about partnering with the founders and management to accelerate Boost.ai’s growth ambitions in the coming years.”

Boost.ai’s management team, led by founder and CEO Lars Ropeid Selsås, will continue to operate and manage the Company following the transaction. Co-founder Henry Vaage Iversen will continue as CCO.

The terms of the transaction were not disclosed.