Manychat, a leading AI-powered business messaging platform, has secured $140 million in new funding to accelerate its global expansion and integrate more advanced AI features into its product. The Series B round was led by Summit Partners, signaling strong investor confidence in the company’s mission to transform how businesses engage customers through messaging apps.
Founded in 2015, Manychat has grown into a trusted platform for over 1.5 million businesses across 170 countries, including major names like Nike, The New York Times, and Yahoo. The platform enables brands to manage, automate, and personalize conversations across popular messaging channels such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and TikTok.
CEO and co-founder Mike Yan revealed that Manychat now delivers “billions” of automated messages annually on behalf of clients, helping businesses drive growth by meeting customers where they already spend their time: social messaging apps. The new investment will be used to enhance Manychat’s AI capabilities and scale its sales, marketing, and support teams globally.
Despite the funding, Manychat remains financially healthy. Yan described the company’s operations as “always on the edge of break-even,” a rare position for a startup raising growth capital in today’s AI-driven ecosystem.
From Telegram to Global Scale
Manychat’s origin story mirrors the rapid evolution of social messaging. The company began as a tool for businesses to engage customers on Telegram, one of the first Western platforms to offer public APIs. This early focus on direct chat communication quickly propelled Manychat into the spotlight when Facebook’s Messenger API opened the door for broader integration.
By 2019, the company had already raised $18 million in its Series A round, enabling further expansion into Meta-owned platforms and, eventually, TikTok. Today, Instagram stands as the platform’s most active and engaged channel.
Interestingly, Manychat’s early growth predated the generative AI boom. While modern AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude focus heavily on natural conversation, Manychat carved its niche by blending automation with actionable engagement — helping businesses drive conversions through personalized conversations.
The Future: AI-Powered Commerce via Messaging
Summit Partners’ Sophia Popova, who is joining Manychat’s board, believes the startup is positioned perfectly to capture the next wave of e-commerce, which is increasingly shifting into direct messaging environments.
“Our thesis hinges on a greater proportion of commerce dollars going through social messaging apps,” Popova said. “You need to be always on and engaging 24/7. That is what customers expect and Manychat is hitting the nail on the head.”
Unlike traditional chatbots or even the newest AI assistants, Manychat’s focus is on guiding users toward taking meaningful actions, not just answering questions. This strategic difference positions the platform as a true sales and engagement engine rather than just a customer service bot.
With the newly raised capital, Manychat plans to deepen its AI integration and stay ahead of the competition as the messaging and AI landscape evolves at record speed.
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