Conversational AI platform for banks Clinc topped off a year of “explosive growth” in 2017 by generating more than $4.5 million in annual revenue. The strong revenue numbers come as the Ann Arbor, Michigan-based, Finovate Best of Show winner announces the hiring of technology executive Helen Yu (pictured) as its Chief Growth Officer.
Calling Yu’s talents “hard to find,” Clinc CEO Dr. Jason Mars praised the former Hyperion, Oracle, and Adobe executive’s “tremendous knowledge, extensive experience and track record of transforming organizations.” These, Mars said, would be “an impactful asset to our team as we execute our aggressive growth plans, expand into additional verticals and achieve our mission to revolutionize and redefine experiences through conversational AI.”
Yu comes to Clinc most recently from Marketo, where she served as group vice president. While at the marketing software firm, Yu led the enterprise business from 5% of Marketo’s ARR (annual recurring revenue) to 50% within three and half years before the company was acquired by Vista Equity Partners in an all-cash, $1.79 billion deal. An Athena pioneer, the founder and CEO of the Tigon Advisory Corporation, as well as an advisor for Jebbit and the C-Suite Accelerator program, Yu studied at Cornell University and has a MBA from Loyola University in Chicago.
“The combination of Clinc’s market momentum, technical capabilities and diversified leadership team made this an irresistable opportunity,” Yu said. “There’s a massive opportunity ahead of us and I’m elated to help take Clinc to the next level.” Yu underscored the uniqueness of Clinc’s offering and praised the fintech’s execution, as well. “No one has accelerated from product launch to achieving 15x growth within the same year,” she said.
Founded in 2015, Clinc demonstrated its technology at FinovateFall 2016, earning a Best of Show award for its AI-enabled intelligent financial assistant. In November, the company announced that its technology was live in six countries, including Turkey, where the nation’s largest private bank signed a deal to deploy Clinc’s platform. Also last fall, Clinc announced a partnership with Enacomm to bring its AI chatbot technology to smaller, community banks and credit unions. 2017 also featured a deal with USAA and the closing of a $6 million Series A round led by Drive Capital that took the company’s total capital to $7.75 million. Dr. Mars participated in our Finovate webinar “How to Make it In the Fintech Industry: 3 Start-Up Success Stories” last year.