AI company announces move from San Francisco for a North Texas suburb

The latest company to reposition from California to Texas is an artificial intelligence startup that's nabbed customers such as Frontier Airlines, Adidas and Mercedes-Benz. 

Cognigy, which creates AI agents for customer service, is moving its U.S. headquarters from San Francisco to Plano, Texas, D Magazine reports. This comes as the startup has 50 employees in the U.S. and is aiming to grow its headcount beyond 100. 

With its global headquarters in Germany, along with other offices in the U.K., Australia and Japan, the startup is now looking forward to its move to Texas. Joe Havlik, Cognigy's North America general manager, described San Francisco as a good place for "established players" while calling Dallas-Fort Worth an "emerging tech hub" in the D Magazine report. CEO Philipp Heltewig also praised the Dallas area for its talent pool and possible customers.   

Others have previously followed in Tesla CEO Elon Musk's footsteps and looked to Texas over California. Online real estate services provider Realtor.com relocated from its San Francisco Bay Area headquarters to Austin in February, a move that seemingly pleased Gov. Greg Abbott as he invited the CEO over for dinner ahead of the official announcement. And last fall, struggling EV startup Canoo made a plan to relocate a majority of employees who were working at its Los Angeles-area site to Texas or Oklahoma and lay off the rest. The company later filed for bankruptcy and ceased operations. 

Meanwhile, Cognigy is flush with cash. The startup boasts that more than 1,000 brands worldwide rely on its AI agents that provide "hyper-personalized service" in more than 100 languages. Just last year, the company raised $100 million in a funding round that Cognigy said would help it deliver its customer service at scale. 

Now, Cognigy is preparing for its move, which will be to a development known as The Parkwood located off Dallas North Tollway in Plano.