Sierra acquires AI startup Fragment to boost agent development

Sierra, a customer service agent startup, announced on Thursday that it has acquired Fragment, a Y Combinator (a startup accelerator)-backed French startup that helps businesses integrate artificial intelligence into workflows. This transaction represents Sierra’s third public acquisition. The company previously expanded its portfolio by purchasing Japan-based enterprise AI solutions company Opera Tech, which it acquired in late March. Around the same time, also in late March, Sierra announced its acquisition of the voice agent company Receptive AI. The financial terms of the acquisition of Fragment were not publicly announced.

Following the transaction, Fragment co-founders Olivier Moindrot and Guillaume Genthial will join the Sierra team. In a blog post, Sierra founders Bret Taylor and Clay Bavor wrote that Moindrot and Genthial will bring “valuable strength” to the company’s “agent development efforts in France.” Taylor, who also serves as OpenAI’s chairman of the board, co-founded Sierra alongside Google alumnus Bavor. The co-founders started the company after Taylor stepped down as co-CEO of Salesforce in early 2023. The customer service agent startup counts Casper, Clear, and Brex as its customers.

The financial details of the companies include:

• Sierra has raised more than $630 million in funding to date from investors including Sequoia and Benchmark.
• Sierra has a $10 billion valuation.
• Fragment raised around $2 million through its seed round, an early stage of venture capital funding, according to estimates by PitchBook.

Why it matters

Sierra is consolidating its position in the AI agent space, using acquisitions to build out its technical capabilities and talent pool in both France and Japan. This strategy highlights the company’s focus on expanding its agent development efforts in these regions.