Concur Founders Back AI Startup SCALA to Reinvent Customer Experience

A new Seattle-area startup is quietly entering the artificial intelligence race with a mission to transform how businesses manage customer experiences. SCALA.AI, a stealth-mode company backed by Concur co-founders Raj Singh and Mike Hilton, is building an AI-powered platform designed to help enterprises unlock greater value from customer interactions and data.

Although the company has revealed only limited details, its leadership believes the next generation of customer experience (CX) software will go far beyond simple automation.

AI Platform Targets Enterprise Customer Experience

SCALA.AI was incorporated in June and remains in the early stages of development. The company is co-founded by Raj Singh, who most recently served as CEO of healthcare technology company Accolade and now acts as SCALA’s executive chairman.

Mike Hilton, Singh’s longtime business partner and fellow Concur co-founder, is backing the startup as an investor.

Leading day-to-day operations is CEO Ardie Sameti, whose career spans both the restaurant industry and enterprise software. Before launching SCALA, Sameti spent nearly a decade at Accolade, where he led multiple product teams and later oversaw the company’s artificial intelligence initiatives.

According to Sameti, SCALA is creating a platform built around vertical-specific agentic AI solutions that will help organizations better understand customer behavior, improve interactions, and generate greater business value from customer data.

Initially, the startup plans to serve industries including healthcare, financial services, and retail.

Looking Beyond Basic AI Automation

Sameti believes many AI companies are currently focused on improving efficiency through repetitive task automation. SCALA, however, wants to build technology capable of delivering strategic insights and real-time value for business leaders.

Rather than simply replacing manual work, the startup aims to rethink how enterprises use customer information to make better operational and business decisions.

The customer experience software market already includes established companies such as Qualtrics and SurveyMonkey, along with customer data platform providers like Seattle-based Amperity. Singh previously served on Amperity’s board of directors for seven years before stepping down in November.

From Restaurants to AI Leadership

Sameti’s path into the technology industry has been anything but traditional.

Born in Iran during the Iran-Iraq war, he later immigrated to the United States with his mother and settled in the Seattle area. His early career was rooted in hospitality, where he managed restaurant operations and gained firsthand experience in customer service and business management.

His transition into technology came in 2015, when he joined Accolade as Raj Singh’s assistant. Over the following years, Sameti advanced through the company, eventually becoming a director and vice president responsible for leading AI initiatives.

Singh praised Sameti as the ideal leader to reshape customer experience in the AI era, citing the team’s work at Accolade as the foundation for SCALA’s broader ambitions.

According to Singh, the startup is applying lessons learned in healthcare to develop tools that can create real-time value for executive teams across multiple industries.

Experienced Founders Return to Startup Building

Raj Singh and Mike Hilton have a long history of building successful enterprise software companies.

The pair co-founded Concur in 1993, helping grow the expense management software company before its $8.3 billion acquisition by SAP in 2014.

Both executives later joined Accolade in 2015. The healthcare technology company went public in 2020, with Singh serving as CEO until stepping down in April this year. Hilton, who held the position of Chief Product Officer, left the company in 2023.

Singh said there has never been a better time to innovate, describing the current AI landscape as an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs focused on solving complex business problems.

Early Stage With Big Ambitions

SCALA currently employs fewer than 10 people and is continuing to develop its product while operating from a WeWork office in Bellevue, Washington.

Although the startup remains in stealth mode, its experienced leadership team, combined with deep expertise in enterprise software and artificial intelligence, positions SCALA as another emerging player seeking to reshape the future of customer experience through AI.

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