More than 48,000 companies have adopted Dialpad Inc.’s cloud-based communications services since it hit the scene in 2011. On Thursday, the startup announced the completion of a $17 million investment intended to help sustain its growth amid rising competition from rival providers.

Dialpad’s flagship offering is a subscription-based platform that allows users to handle all their business communications in one place. The service, which claims to be aimed partly at doing away with the office desk phone, provides the ability to make voice and video calls, as well as message contacts in cases when their availability is limited. Relevant information about the person on the other end of the line is displayed in a sidebar to the left.

Companies can customize the interface using built-in integrations. Dialpad can display recent emails from a contact, their social media accounts and scheduled appointments along with other useful details.

Rounding out the feature set is an extensive set of administrative options. According to Dialpad, its platform’s centralized nature can make day-to-day operations easier compared with using multiple communications products that each have be managed separately. The startup claims that customers on average see a 90 percent reduction in administrative costs as a result.

Other providers are recognizing the appeal of a unified interface as well. Earlier this month, Atlassian Corp. Plc launched a platform called Stride that brings together voice, video and text communications in a single package. Microsoft Corp. is pursuing the same approach with its Teams collaboration service, which is set to replace Skype for Business. 

Dialpad’s backers seem to be confident in its ability can keep pace with the competition going forward. The lead investor in this week’s round was a recently established fund called Section 32 headed by Bill Maris, who is best known for having founded Google LLC’s GV venture capital arm. The search giant contributed to the round as well alongside Andreessen Horowitz and other returning backers.

Dialpad has raised $70 million to date.

Image: Dialpad