Betaworks-backed Dexter raises $2.3 million to build you a chatbot

Dexter, once pitched as an “IFTTT on steroids,” is morphing into a chatbot builder, with $2.3 million in new funding from Rakuten Ventures, Social Starts, and Betaworks.

Launched out of Betaworks’ New York incubator in October 2015, Dexter is now “a full-blown bot building platform,” according to founder Daniel Ilkovich. The company’s original data automation service has ceased to exist, but Ilkovich declined to describe the change as a “pivot” — it’s a “narrowing of focus,” he said.

You won’t need programming skills to build, host, and monitor a chatbot on Dexter’s service when it launches next month, according to Ilkovich: “If you can write, you can build a bot on Dexter.”

Operating under the radar, Dexter has already publicly launched a number of bots, including this one inspired by Drake and another for Father’s Day.