Investor General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund is giving the San Francisco-based firm US$96 million to finance sales and marketing, and will be paid back the money plus a capped profit. Existing OpenPhone backers including Kitchener Ont.-based Garage Capital added another US$9 million in equity funding. (The Logic)

Talking point: Canadians Mahyar Raissi and Daryna Kulya co-founded OpenPhone in early 2018 and moved to the Bay Area after participating in Y Combinator. The firm’s software initially set small businesses up with a virtual phone number for professional calls and transactions. OpenPhone has since expanded into customer relationship management tools. In April, it launched an AI agent called Sona that can answer clients’ questions and schedule appointments. It’s rebranding as Quo to decentre the phone, Kulya said in a LinkedIn post. The firm is competing in an increasingly crowded field of AI agents for small businesses.