Solidroad Secures $6.5 Million to Advance AI-Driven Customer Service Training and Quality

Solidroad Secures $6.5 Million to Improve AI in Customer Service

Solidroad, a Dublin-based AI startup, recently raised $6.5 million in seed funding to enhance its platform that automatically trains customer service representatives and refines AI agents. Led by First Round Capital with support from Y Combinator, Solidroad tackles a key challenge for growing customer support teams: maintaining service quality as conversation volumes exceed 10,000 interactions monthly without inflating costs.

Mark Hughes, Solidroad’s co-founder and CEO, explains the dilemma clearly: “CX leaders scaling past 10,000 conversations a month are often stuck between two options—either maintain quality and absorb costs or cut costs and see customer satisfaction drop. Traditional solutions just don’t work.”

How Solidroad Uses AI to Train Agents and Improve AI Systems

Unlike AI tools that aim to replace human agents, Solidroad acts as an “aggregation layer” over existing communication channels. It analyzes every customer interaction, applying AI-powered quality assurance across 100% of conversations instead of the usual 1-3% manual review.

The platform transforms conversation data into personalized training simulations for human agents and improvement recommendations for AI systems. This approach moves beyond simply scoring calls to making insights directly actionable. Hughes emphasizes, “We create targeted coaching at scale without adding manual work or extra staff.”

Positive Early Results from Customers

Several companies report meaningful benefits from using Solidroad:

• Crypto.com cut average handling time by 18% and raised customer satisfaction scores from 87% to 90%.
• ActiveCampaign saved the equivalent of a full year’s manual coaching time, reallocating resources to more effective training and faster feedback.
• Podium halved new hire ramp-up time by embedding AI-driven training in onboarding.

PartnerHero also experienced a 30% boost in agent proficiency. Currently, Solidroad analyzes hundreds of thousands of conversations monthly for over 50 customers, with new sign-ups regularly.

Founders’ Experience Shapes Solidroad’s Mission

Mark Hughes and Patrick Finlay, Solidroad’s CTO, bring hands-on customer experience knowledge from Intercom, where they saw firsthand the limits of existing tools. Hughes recalls, “Even great companies were stuck duct-taping together solutions that didn’t truly help CX teams improve.”

Both founders have a history of building startups—Hughes founded Gradguide, and Finlay co-founded the Y Combinator-backed no-code startup Monaru.

Why Solidroad Focuses on Human-AI Collaboration

The customer experience software market often leans toward either full automation or basic analytics. These approaches can miss the mark, especially when AI agents mishandle complex or emotional customer interactions.

Solidroad’s stance is clear: “We don’t handle conversations ourselves. Instead, we help human agents perform better,” says Hughes. This philosophy supports a balanced approach where AI handles repetitive tasks and humans manage nuanced problems.

Backing from First Round Capital and Growth Plans

First Round Capital’s investment signals confidence in Solidroad’s approach. Known for early bets on Notion and Uber, the firm brings valuable experience. Hughes notes, “They’ve backed founders who know how to build.”

Funds will fuel hiring, mainly in San Francisco, with plans to move the Ireland-based team to the Bay Area and grow both engineering and go-to-market teams. Solidroad is actively recruiting for roles at the intersection of AI and customer experience.

Security and Privacy at the Core

Given the sensitive nature of customer conversations, Solidroad maintains strong security standards, including SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO27001 compliance. Customer data is kept isolated in secure workspaces with no cross-client sharing, addressing privacy concerns.

Hughes stresses, “Security and privacy are core to how we operate. Each customer’s data lives in a secure, isolated workspace.”

Implications for Customer Support Professionals

Solidroad’s approach offers a practical path for customer support teams facing rising interaction volumes without proportional increases in resources. By automating quality assurance and delivering personalized training based on real conversations, teams can improve agent performance while keeping costs in check.

This method respects the complexity of human interactions that AI alone can’t fully manage, especially in emotional or complicated cases. It also reduces the manual workload of quality assurance, freeing up time for higher-value coaching and development.

For customer support professionals interested in enhancing their skills with AI-driven tools and training, exploring resources like Complete AI Training can provide practical courses tailored to today’s evolving customer experience landscape.

Looking Ahead: Improving Human Performance with AI

Solidroad’s strategy emphasizes continuous improvement over replacing human agents. AI handles repetitive tasks and quality assessment, while humans focus on complex, emotional interactions that require empathy and judgment.

This balanced approach could be more sustainable and effective than pursuing full automation. It offers customer support teams a way to keep improving performance and customer satisfaction as volumes grow.

As customer experience becomes a key differentiator for business success, technologies that enhance human capabilities rather than replace them may offer the best long-term advantage.