Directly, a provider of customer experience automation, has named Mike de la Cruz as its CEO.
De la Cruz was previously Directly's chief business officer. He served as senior vice president of CRM at SAP after a five-year tenure at Siebel Systems, where he developed industry-specific CRM software. He led a global team of 15,000 professionals at Hewlett Packard Enterprise to deliver front-office software and automation solutions for the financial services, telecommunications, consumer goods, transportation and high tech industries.
Directly co-founder and former CEO Antony Brydon will now lead innovation as vice president of the Directly platform.
Directly also announced a $20 million strategic investment that will significantly expand its ability to bring artificial intelligence and customer experience automation to the market. New participants in the round include Samsung NEXT, Industry Ventures and AvidBank. Existing investors M12, Costanoa Ventures, True Ventures, and Northgate also participated in the round.
"Directly saw tremendous growth towards the end of 2019, and the work they're doing to revolutionize AI and machine learning for virtual agents is outstanding. We're proud to take the lead on this strategic investment, and we look forward to Directly's bright future," said Industry Ventures Vice President Brian Langner in a statement.