GoButler lets you text a virtual personal assistant to get anything you need, from a burrito to a new tie. Using artificial intelligence to search the web for prices and reviews, it aims to be the answer to your "uh-oh" moments when you realize you forgot to pick up dry cleaning or make a dinner reservation.
The service, which was launched earlier this year in Europe with 100,000 beta users, has since been expanded to the U.S., Canada, the UK, Germany and Switzerland, and it just closed a $6 million funding round led by Cherry Ventures. It currently has 120 trained operators (called 'heroes') who help users with anything they need. Most of those requests are delivery items like food or flowers, while 20 percent are travel-related and 15 percent are what GoButler calls "value" items such as spa days or restaurant reservations. GoButler aims to keep costs down by only charging for what it actually gets you, storing your address and payment information so you don't have to enter it again each time. It also hopes to add services that can earn loyalty rewards, such as laundry services Washio and Laundrapp.
As an added bonus, GoButler doesn't require its users to install a separate app, and it doesn't charge any fees beyond the price of the product or service itself, unlike Magic, which charges a flat fee on top of whatever you're purchasing. Ultimately, Hadzaad says, he hopes that GoButler will even be able to start making suggestions to customers, based on what they've purchased, to recommend other products or services that might work well for them.
