7.ai is a customer experience software and services company based in California that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to understand consumer intent. It helps companies create a personalized experience across channels. 7.ai was founded in April 2000 by P. V. Kannan and Shanmugam Nagarajan. Kannan previously founded Business Evolution, a software company, which was acquired by Kana Software in 1999. The company is headquartered in San Jose, California. Other offices are located in Toronto, London, and Sydney. 7.ai has customers in many industries, including agencies, education, financial services, healthcare, insurance, retail & e-commerce, telecom, travel & hospitality, and utilities. In 2003, 7.ai was privately funded in part by Michael Moritz and his venture capital firm Sequoia Capital. The total venture funding was estimated at about $22 million. The company was profitable by the end of 2003. In February 2012 a deal was announced in which 7.ai and Microsoft would combine technologies for natural user interfaces and data analytics at cloud scale. Microsoft made an equity investor and transferred approximately 400 employees of the former Tellme Networks to 7.ai. At the same time, 7.ai acquired the call center automation developer Voxify, which had been based in Alameda, California, and was funded by investors such as Intel. In 2012, the company rebranded its business, adopting a new logo dropping the word "Customer" and putting square brackets around the "24". In January 2013 it announced it would market some internally developed software products for combining chat with analytics.