Omilia, an Athens-based customer support automation company founded in 2002, has raised $67 million in a Series B round led by Expedition Growth Capital. The funding comes amid a wave of AI-driven customer service startups such as Sierra, Decagon and Parloa, but Omilia's chief executive Dimitris Vassos argues that deploying large language models for every query is wasteful, saying the firm prefers to use a mix of tools rather than relying solely on generative AI.

The round marks only the company's second fundraise, following a $20 million investment from Grafton Capital in 2020, and comes as its annual recurring revenue has grown tenfold to $60 million. Omilia's clients include Capital One, Discover, RBC, DWP and PSEG, with a growing focus on quick-service restaurants using voice-based ordering, including Taco Bell across more than 1,000 outlets; Vassos denied a widely reported incident in which a customer allegedly ordered 18,000 cups of water through the system. The new capital will fund a US office opening, along with senior hires including a chief revenue officer, chief marketing officer and VP of revenue operations, as the company grows from around 500 to an expected 600 employees by year-end.