What Textel does

Textel is a St. Louis-based, private business texting and AI customer experience technology company founded in 2014. Its core product enables businesses to send and receive SMS conversations with customers using their existing business phone numbers, with the platform having expanded into an AI-powered conversational automation suite. The current offering centers on a unified AI Agent Engine combined with AI Knowledge Orchestration that powers a family of channel-specific agents (SMS, Chat, Voice, Email) sharing a single trained knowledge base, alongside Agent Assist tools, analytics modules (Conversation Intelligence, AI CSAT, Auto QA, Agent Coaching), and outbound campaign capabilities across SMS, Voice, and WhatsApp. Built-in compliance management handles 10DLC, toll-free, and short-code carrier registration plus automatic opt-out enforcement, which lowers deployment friction for regulated buyers.

The company targets enterprises and mid-market organizations across diverse verticals including automotive, banking, credit unions, insurance, healthcare, education, retail, beauty, CPG, BPO, hospitality, and government. The customer roster includes 3M, Disney, Nike, Kraft Heinz, NVIDIA, US Army, American Express, Sony, LinkedIn, SSM Health, Valvoline, Aveda, Titleist, Pearson, McGraw Hill, YMCA, DSW, and Choice Hotels, with disclosed scale metrics of 20,000+ organizations served, 1.5M+ users, and 36.3B+ automated interactions.

Textel generates revenue through an enterprise-focused, quote-based pricing model accessed via a 'Request a Demo' CTA and a direct field sales motion, supplemented by self-serve mobile app distribution on iOS and Android. The company has raised approximately $5M in disclosed outside capital across a 2019 seed and an October 2020 Series A, both led by Cultivation Capital. Leadership includes founder and CEO James Diel, CRO Mike Mixon, and VP of Product Engineering Kelly Stevens, with the firm operating at a 101–250 employee scale.

Name

Textel

Legal name

Textel

Website

https://textel.net

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Textel is a St. Louis-based AI-powered business texting and customer experience platform founded in 2014 that enables enterprises across automotive, banking, healthcare, retail, and government to automate two-way SMS, chat, voice, and email conversations using existing business phone numbers and a unified knowledge base.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Business SMS and Conversational AI Messaging

NAICS

All Other Telecommunications (517810)

SIC

Telegraph & Other Message Communications (4822)

akta.pro primary industry

SMS/RCS Messaging Platforms (BPAMACAF)

akta.pro secondary industries

Conversational AI Platforms (chat/voice bots, orchestration) (HDAAAFAC), SMS/MMS & Messaging Marketing Services (Text, RCS, WhatsApp/OTT) (MPAAAIAB)

Keywords

• Business SMS platform
• Text message automation
• SMS customer support
• Conversational AI agents
• Two-way business texting

Headquarters

HQ city

St Louis

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Textel provides a business texting technology platform that enables businesses to send and receive SMS messages using their existing business phone numbers, augmented by AI-powered conversational agents. The platform automates two-way text conversations, answers customer inquiries, books appointments, creates support tickets, and updates systems directly within text threads, with built-in compliance for carrier registration and opt-out enforcement.

Product overview

Textel, as represented on Capacity's platform, offers an AI-powered customer experience solution built on Capacity's unified AI platform. The core offering is the SMS AI Agent—a two-way conversational AI agent for SMS customer support—alongside related AI Agent channels (Chat, Voice, Email) that share a unified AI Agent Engine. This platform architecture allows organizations to train knowledge and workflows once and deploy them across all communication channels. The product suite includes Agent Assist tools for real-time human agent support, analytics products (Conversation Intelligence, AI CSAT, Auto QA, Agent Coaching) for performance monitoring, and Outbound Campaigns for proactive customer engagement. The platform is designed for contact centers, customer support teams, sales and marketing, HR and ops, and IT support across industries including automotive, banking, healthcare, insurance, and retail.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• SMS AI Agent A two-way conversational AI agent that automates SMS customer support by answering questions, triaging requests, booking appointments, creating tickets, and escalating to human agents when needed, for businesses using their existing business phone numbers.
• Chat AI Agent AI-powered chat agent that automates customer conversations across web and messaging platforms, powered by the unified AI Agent Engine shared with SMS, Voice, and Email channels.
• Voice AI Agent Intelligent voice assistant that handles phone-based customer interactions with natural language understanding, powered by the same unified AI Agent Engine used across all channels.
• Email AI Agent AI agent that automates email customer support, processing inbound emails and generating responses, sharing the same knowledge base and workflows as other AI Agents.
• AI Agent Engine The unified AI platform that powers all agent channels (SMS, Chat, Voice, Email), enabling knowledge and workflows to be trained once and used across every communication channel with a single customer record.
• AI Knowledge Orchestration Knowledge management system that enables AI agents to draw on connected knowledge bases for grounded, accurate responses across SMS, chat, voice, and email.
• Outbound Campaigns (SMS, Voice, WhatsApp) Campaign management tools for proactive customer outreach including SMS Campaigns, Voice Campaigns, and WhatsApp Campaigns for driving conversions and customer loyalty.

Quantifiable outcome

• 36.3B+ automated interactions handled
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers18 records

Segments6 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability5 records

Feature4 records

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Twilio: Public communications platform providing SMS APIs, messaging, voice, and customer engagement tooling used by enterprises globally. Comparable as a foundational SMS infrastructure and engagement layer, though broader in scope than Textel's agent-focused offering.
• Genesys: Large enterprise contact center and CX platform with cloud, AI, and messaging capabilities including SMS. Comparable as an incumbent targeting the same contact center automation buyer, though significantly broader in scope.
• Five9: Public cloud contact center provider with growing AI agent and digital channel capabilities. Comparable as an enterprise contact center incumbent whose AI roadmap increasingly overlaps with Textel's SMS/voice/email agent offering.
• Zendesk: Public customer service and engagement platform with messaging, AI agents, and contact center products. Comparable as a broad CX incumbent whose AI and messaging capabilities increasingly compete with Textel in enterprise support automation.

Direct peers

• MessageBird: Omnichannel business messaging platform offering SMS, WhatsApp, and conversational AI for customer support, marketing, and authentication. Directly comparable as an enterprise messaging + AI agent solution targeting the same contact center use cases.
• Sinch: Global messaging and communications platform offering SMS, RCS, WhatsApp, and voice APIs along with conversational AI. Comparable as a direct SMS and conversational AI provider serving enterprise customer engagement use cases.
• Quiq: Conversational AI platform purpose-built for business messaging across SMS, web chat, and messaging apps, with a strong focus on contact center automation. Most direct niche competitor in AI-driven two-way SMS customer support.
• Klaviyo: Customer engagement and SMS/email marketing platform built for commerce brands, with growing AI automation capabilities. Comparable for the SMS marketing, outbound campaigns, and customer engagement portions of Textel's product.
• Attentive: SMS-first marketing platform for retail and consumer brands, with conversational AI features for two-way customer engagement. Comparable as a peer in business SMS messaging and AI-powered customer outreach.
• Plivo: Cloud communications platform offering SMS, voice, and WhatsApp APIs for enterprise customer engagement. Comparable as a SMS messaging infrastructure and engagement platform, though more developer/API-focused than Textel's agent-led positioning.

Market position

Strengths1 record

Weaknesses1 record

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/teamcapacity
• Xx.com/textelnow

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds2 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Textel