Afiniti After 4 Years by Alexander Gornyi

The post was originally published in Russian on Startup of the Day. Alexander kindly agreed to republish what we think is of great value to our readers.

Sometimes there’s an amazingly small feature lying at the basis of a huge company, there’s not even a lot to describe. Afiniti, the startup of the day, sells a single solution to a single task – picking an operator at a call center. 30 employees sit at their phones, 20 are talking, 10 are available. A new call comes through, somebody needs to answer it. Traditional systems choose operators with a single line of code – the best-rated one or the first one in line or anything else equally clear.

Afiniti found room for optimization here. Based on the results of the previous conversations, the neural network determines the most fitting employees for this particular client, the calls become more successful. Naturally, no miracles occur, even the startup’s promo materials mention the approximate 4% of increase in revenue. On the other hand, a 4% revenue increase from nothing is an excellent reason to implement a new solution, especially since the integration is effortless, all the regular telephonies naturally are supported.

In the latest round one year ago, the investors valued the company at USD 1.5B. A billion and a half for a single optimization in demand!

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This is a rerun from 2018. In 4 years, the company didn’t set any new records, didn’t go IPO, didn’t reach the valuation of 10B. But what happened then is still admirable.

Translation: Kostiantyn Tupikov