Enterprise AI Research Platform Gains Momentum
Strella Biotechnology, an emerging leader in AI-powered customer research, has secured $14 million in Series A funding to scale its voice-based interview platform that’s already being adopted by major corporations including Amazon and Chobani. The funding round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners with participation from several prominent venture firms, comes as the startup demonstrates remarkable growth metrics: tenfold revenue increase since October, quadrupled customer base to over 40 enterprises, and tripled average contract values as it moves upmarket to serve Fortune 500 companies.
The company’s rapid ascent reflects a broader transformation in how enterprises leverage artificial intelligence for customer insights, moving beyond traditional survey methods to more dynamic, conversational approaches. Founded by former consultants Lydia Hylton and Priya Krishnan, Strella addresses what they identified as a critical bottleneck in customer research – the extensive manual labor required for traditional studies that could consume eight weeks from initiation to insights.
Compressing Research Timelines from Weeks to Days
Strella’s core innovation lies in its AI-moderated interview platform that conducts voice-based conversations resembling Zoom calls, but with artificial intelligence handling the questioning, follow-up, and analysis. The system dramatically reduces research timelines while maintaining – and in some cases enhancing – the quality of insights gathered.
“Research tends to be bookended by two very strategic steps: first, we have a problem – what research should we do? And second, we’ve done the research – now what are we going to do with it?” explained CEO Lydia Hylton in an exclusive interview. “All the stuff in the middle tends to be execution and lower-skill work. We view Strella as doing that middle 90% of the work.”
The platform’s ability to compress eight-week research projects into mere days has proven particularly valuable for product teams operating in fast-moving environments. Traditional customer research typically requires writing interview guides, recruiting participants, scheduling calls, conducting interviews, taking notes, synthesizing findings, and creating presentations – a process that consumes significant skilled labor and often delays critical product decisions.
Unexpected Honesty: Why Participants Open Up to AI
One of Strella’s most counterintuitive findings challenges conventional wisdom about human-AI interaction: participants appear more honest and forthcoming with AI moderators than with human researchers. This pattern emerged consistently during head-to-head comparisons between traditional human-moderated studies and Strella’s AI approach.
“If you’re a designer and you get on a Zoom call with a customer and you say, ‘Do you like my design?’ they’re always gonna say yes. They don’t want to hurt your feelings,” Hylton explained. “But it’s not a problem at all for Strella. They would tell you exactly what they think about it, which is really valuable. It’s very hard to get honest feedback.”
This dynamic has significant implications for research quality. Brian Santiago, Senior Product Design Manager at Apollo GraphQL, confirmed the phenomenon: “Before Strella, studies took weeks. Now we get insights in a day – sometimes in just a few hours. And because participants open up more with the AI moderator, the feedback is deeper and more honest.”
Mobile Innovation and Fraud Prevention
A significant portion of the Series A funding will support expansion of Strella’s recently-launched mobile application, which features persistent screen sharing technology that enables researchers to watch users navigate mobile applications in real time while the AI moderator asks about their experience.
“We are the only player in the market that supports screen sharing on mobile,” Hylton stated. This capability is particularly crucial as mobile interfaces become increasingly central to customer experiences across industries.
The platform also addresses a persistent challenge in online research: participant fraud. Because Strella interviews occur on camera in real time, the AI moderator can detect suspicious behavior – such as unusually long pauses that might indicate someone is consulting external resources – and flag potentially fraudulent participants. This stands in stark contrast to traditional surveys where fraud rates can be substantial, particularly when participants receive compensation.
Technical Differentiation in Crowded Market
Despite entering a market with established players like Qualtrics and numerous AI-powered startups, Strella has carved out a distinctive position through its focus on free-form conversational interviews rather than adaptive surveys or text-based interfaces.
“Our approach is fundamentally better, which is the fact that it is a free form conversation,” Hylton emphasized. “You never have to control anything. You’re never typing, there’s no buttons, there’s no upload and wait for the next question. It’s completely free form, and that has been an extraordinarily hard product to build.”
The founders revealed they initially pursued a different approach – synthetic respondents or “digital twins” that simulate customer perspectives using large language models – but pivoted after discovering limited willingness to pay for that technology. This strategic shift comes as major technology providers increasingly embrace open AI approaches across their platforms.
Enterprise Adoption and Future Roadmap
Strella’s current customer roster includes Amazon, Duolingo, Apollo GraphQL, and Chobani, collectively conducting thousands of AI-moderated interviews that deliver what the company claims is a 90% average time savings on manual research work. The platform now approaches $1 million in revenue after beginning monetization only in January, with month-over-month growth of 50% and zero customer churn to date.
Lindsey Li, Vice President at Bessemer Venture Partners, who led the investment, highlighted both the technology and team as compelling factors. “Strella has built highly differentiated technology that enables a continuous interview rather than a survey,” Li said. “We heard time and time again that customers loved this product experience relative to other offerings.”
The platform’s capabilities extend beyond simple conversation, incorporating traditional survey question types directly into interviews while maintaining natural engagement. Strella interviews regularly run 60 to 90 minutes with nearly 100% completion rates – a duration that would typically see 60-70% drop-off in traditional survey formats. This robust engagement occurs even as cybersecurity threats become increasingly sophisticated across digital platforms.
Building the System of Record for Qualitative Insights
Looking forward, Strella aims to become what Li described as “the system of truth for all qualitative insights” within enterprises. The platform improves with use, learning from each customer’s research patterns to fine-tune future interview guides and questions, while all research accumulates in a central repository accessible to team members.
This vision aligns with broader industry trends toward open source development and transparent technology solutions that provide enterprises with greater control and customization capabilities. Meanwhile, the platform’s fraud detection capabilities address growing concerns about blockchain-based scams and digital fraud affecting research integrity.
The company’s growth trajectory also reflects the increasing importance of robust infrastructure and scalable technology platforms capable of supporting enterprise-level research demands. As Strella continues expanding its mobile capabilities and enterprise features, the platform represents a significant evolution in how organizations gather and leverage customer insights to drive product development and business strategy.
Based on reporting by {‘uri’: ‘venturebeat.com’, ‘dataType’: ‘news’, ‘title’: ‘VentureBeat’, ‘description’: ‘VentureBeat is the leader in covering transformative tech. We help business leaders make smarter decisions with our industry-leading AI and gaming coverage.’, ‘location’: {‘type’: ‘place’, ‘geoNamesId’: ‘5391959’, ‘label’: {‘eng’: ‘San Francisco’}, ‘population’: 805235, ‘lat’: 37.77493, ‘long’: -122.41942, ‘country’: {‘type’: ‘country’, ‘geoNamesId’: ‘6252001’, ‘label’: {‘eng’: ‘United States’}, ‘population’: 310232863, ‘lat’: 39.76, ‘long’: -98.5, ‘area’: 9629091, ‘continent’: ‘Noth America’}}, ‘locationValidated’: False, ‘ranking’: {‘importanceRank’: 221535, ‘alexaGlobalRank’: 7149, ‘alexaCountryRank’: 3325}}. This article aggregates information from publicly available sources. All trademarks and copyrights belong to their respective owners.
