Direqt Secures $4.5 Million Investment to Scale AI Chatbot Platform Trusted by the World’s Top Publishers for Audience Growth and Revenue Generation

Direqt, the first AI chatbot platform built exclusively for publishers, today announced $4.5M in funding from a private consortium of entrepreneurs and executives, including Todd Parker, former Global Head of Business Development for Business Messaging at Google, NFL Hall of Famer Dan Marino, Peter Callahan, Former CEO of American Media, Ron Antevy, Founder & CEO e-Builder and Dave Walsh, Partner at Kayne Anderson. Used by leading publishers, including ESPN, GQ, WIRED, Vogue, and Cosmopolitan, the funding will enable Direqt to expand its customizable AI chatbot solution.

“With the rise of generative AI, consumers are increasingly interfacing with chat, presenting new opportunities for publishers. But building AI chatbots from scratch is not only time and cost-intensive, but existing solutions like ChatGPT are trained on data across the internet, raising legal and accuracy concerns,” said John Duffy, Co-Founder and CEO at Direqt. “That’s why we developed Direqt’s chatbot platform to be highly customizable, enabling publishers to train their chatbots exclusively on their content to deliver a conversational experience that reflects brand voice without compromising their editorial standards or budgets.”

Direqt’s chatbot platform unlocks key benefits for publishers, including:

• Content Control: Publishers can train their custom AI chatbot on their unique content and refine personality and brand voice using the Direqt platform.
• Configurable AI: Publishers can determine which AI features are enabled for their chatbot, ensuring that all publishers can leverage chat in a way that is aligned with their overall AI strategy.
• Deepen Engagement: Chatbots can be embedded on publisher’s websites to increase time-on-site, pageviews, and overall reader engagement.
• Reach New Audiences: Chatbots can be distributed across multiple platforms through Direqt’s chatbot distribution network, including social media apps and messaging apps reaching hundreds of millions of previously unreachable audiences.
• Unlock New Revenue: Publishers on Direqt can leverage Direqt’s In-Chat Advertising Platform to monetize their chatbot audience with relevant, privacy-first advertising served natively in-chat.
• First-Party Data: Publishers have exclusive access to the data collected and shared within the chatbot.
• Multiple Vendors: Direqt’s platform is adaptable and utilizes multiple leading LLMs, so publishers are never locked into a single model provider. Publishers can easily configure their conversation engine of choice in the Direqt platform.
• User Experience/Low Cost: Unlike creating a chatbot from scratch internally which can take months to develop and potentially cost hundreds of thousands of dollars or more, Direqt allows publishers to build a chatbot in minutes for a fraction of the cost.

“What Direqt has done is harness the power of AI-driven chatbots and customize them in a way that meets the specific requirements of publishers and their audience,” said Todd Parker, investor and former Global Head of Business Development for Business Messaging at Google. “Generative AI is here to stay, and Direqt is at the forefront of pioneering widespread adoption across the entire publishing industry.”

“Publications today are competing not just with each other but the entirety of the internet; capturing and retaining attention is essential,” said Mitch Rubenstein, Founder of the Sci-Fi Channel and owner of Hollywood.com & Dance Magazine, Direqt customers. “We selected Direqt’s chatbot platform because it allows us to boost audience engagement while retaining ownership and control over our data and content. As a result, since working with Direqt, we’ve been able to boost time-on-site by over 200%.”

About Direqt

Direqt is the first AI chatbot platform built exclusively for publishers. Used by leading media companies including ESPN, The Independent, The Sun, Cosmopolitan and more, Direqt enables chatbot publishers to seamlessly create, grow, and monetize conversational audiences anywhere they are. Publishers leverage Direqt’s platform to train their chatbots exclusively on their own content to deliver highly-engaging experiences in their brand voice. Over 75 publishers are already leveraging Direqt to power their chat experience and reach over 260 million users through Direqt’s chatbot discovery network. To learn more, visit direqt.ai.

Contact Information

Sara Bonadies

Senior Account Executive

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Direqt@vsc.co