Outset Raises $30M Series B to Expand AI-Driven Customer Research and Experience Platform

Outset, a San Francisco–based research technology company, has raised $30 million in a Series B funding round as it accelerates the expansion of its AI-driven platform for customer research and experience management. The financing brings the company’s total funding to $51 million and highlights strong investor interest in AI-native tools designed to scale qualitative insights across large organizations.

The Series B round was led by Radical Ventures, with participation from M12, Microsoft’s venture fund, as well as returning investors Y Combinator, Adverb Ventures, and 8VC. Several of these firms had backed Outset in earlier rounds and increased their commitments, reflecting confidence in the company’s product traction and long-term vision.

Founded to modernize qualitative research, Outset has built an AI-moderated interview platform that allows enterprises to conduct in-depth customer conversations at scale. Traditional qualitative research often relies on time-intensive, manually moderated interviews that limit speed and reach. Outset’s technology replaces these workflows with AI agents capable of leading structured conversations, enabling companies to gather rich, open-ended feedback from large and diverse audiences in a fraction of the time.

Outset’s platform is designed to combine the depth of one-on-one interviews with the scalability of surveys. It supports research in more than 40 languages and includes features such as automated synthesis, fraud detection, and enterprise-grade security. These capabilities have made it attractive to global companies seeking faster, more cost-effective ways to understand customer needs, product perception, and user behavior.

The company plans to use the Series B capital to expand beyond its core research offering and launch what it describes as an AI-native Customer Experience Management platform. This broader vision aims to embed AI-driven qualitative insights across the entire customer lifecycle, allowing businesses to continuously capture contextual feedback rather than relying on periodic studies. Outset believes this shift will help organizations move from reactive research toward real-time understanding that informs product development, marketing strategy, and customer success initiatives.

Outset reported rapid growth in 2025, with increased adoption among large enterprises and global brands. According to the company, customers are using the platform to inform high-stakes decisions, from product launches to brand positioning, by accessing deeper insights into customer motivations and sentiment. CEO and co-founder Aaron Cannon has emphasized that the goal is to make rich qualitative understanding as accessible and scalable as quantitative analytics are today.

The Series B round follows a $17 million Series A financing earlier in 2025, which was led by 8VC and included participation from Future Back Ventures by Bain & Company, Y Combinator, and Adverb Ventures, among others. That earlier funding helped Outset accelerate product development, grow its team, and bring its AI research agents to market at enterprise scale.

Outset’s momentum reflects a broader shift in how organizations leverage artificial intelligence to understand customers. As enterprises look for ways to move faster while maintaining depth and nuance in decision-making, AI-powered qualitative research is gaining traction as a critical complement to traditional analytics. Investors backing Outset see an opportunity to redefine how companies listen to and learn from their users.

With fresh capital and a growing roster of high-profile investors, Outset is positioning itself to play a central role in the evolution of customer research and experience management. As it expands its product suite and global footprint, the company aims to make continuous, AI-driven insight a standard capability for modern enterprises.