Lorikeet has raised $35 million USD in a Series A round to expand its AI-powered customer concierge platform, which aims to move past the limitations of traditional chatbots. The round was led by QED Investors, with participation from Blackbird, Square Peg, Airtree, Skip Capital, Capital49, Operator Partners, and Athletic Ventures.
The funding follows a period of rapid growth for the Sydney-based company, which publicly launched in October 2024. Since then, it has grown revenue 10x, with its AI handling more customer conversations each month. Lorikeet’s concierges are already used by unicorns like Airwallex, Linktree, Flex, and Eucalyptus across the U.S., Europe, and Australia. This latest raise brings the company’s total funding to over $50 million.
Lorikeet positions itself as an answer to the stagnation many businesses face with chatbot-based customer support. Unlike bots that redirect users to FAQ pages or escalate issues to human agents, Lorikeet’s technology is designed to handle complex requests from start to finish.
"Even if they're wrapped up in 'AI agent' buzzwords, chatbots that recite self-serve FAQ steps are fundamentally unable to solve the types of issues customers have in the real world," said Steve Hind, co-founder and CEO of Lorikeet. "Customers don't want to be told how to fix their problems. They want a concierge that actually solves them. That's what we've focused on from day one."
One early use case was full-cycle resolution of lost or stolen debit cards, where Lorikeet’s AI determined eligibility, updated addresses, and issued replacement cards without any human involvement. This emphasis on taking real action sets it apart in a market still dominated by scripted flows and surface-level automation.
With the new capital, Lorikeet plans to double down on product development and expand globally. The company is focused on working with customers in highly regulated industries such as financial services, healthcare, and energy—where automation needs to be both powerful and tightly controlled.
The system uses granular permissions and dynamic guardrails to avoid risky actions like account cancellations, ensuring that automation remains safe and auditable. This approach allows Lorikeet’s concierges to take on more complex responsibilities while maintaining enterprise-grade oversight.
"While others were picking the low-hanging fruit, we built a ladder," said Hind. "We decided from the start that we didn't want to focus on FAQ summaries. We focused on working with companies in highly regulated sectors like financial services, healthcare, and energy in order to challenge ourselves to build a system able to take high-consequence actions in the toughest environments."
Founded in Sydney, Lorikeet was started by Steve Hind and a team with backgrounds in financial services and enterprise tech. The company is now making a name for itself by building automation tools that work in real-world, high-stakes scenarios.
Its board and backers include some of the most prominent names in tech and venture capital. The startup is now the first since Canva to receive early-stage support from all three of Australia’s most well-known VC firms: Blackbird, Square Peg, and Airtree.
"As fintech specialists for more than a decade, we are keenly aware of the unique challenges fintechs and financial services companies face in customer experience," said Victoria Zuo, Principal at QED Investors. "Complex industries need unique solutions... Lorikeet has cracked the code on AI that actually resolves issues end to end."
That validation from both local and international VCs reflects a larger shift toward AI that delivers measurable business outcomes, not just conversational flair.
