San Francisco-based Banter, a provider of auto-response digital communications software, has received $18 million in oversubscribed financing from an investment group led by Financial Technology Ventures (FTVentures).
The consortium also includes Mayfield, RBC Technology Ventures and Lucent Venture Partners.
Banter's technology enables applications to automatically respond to, route or categorise e-mails, text from Web forms and instant messages.
RBC Financial Group, Wells Fargo and ABN AMRO are already using the software for e-mail management, Web-based customer service, in call centres and at help desks.
Bruce Green, vice president, eBusiness enterprise services, RBC, says: "RBC has been able to effectively handle a 45 percent increase in e-mail volumes over a 12-month period while productivity increased by 180 percent."