A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE
- Unified Communications solutions for Enterprises, Fuze, raises $104M in a series E round led by Wellington Management Company. Link
- Business Reputation and customer experience platform, BirdEye, raises $25M in a series B round from World Innovation Lab, Trinity Ventures. Link
- E-mail customer support helpdesk, HelpScout, raises $6.2M in an undisclosed round. Link
- AI powered customer service software, Agent.ai, raises $2.7M in an Angel round. Link
- Messaging app for B2C communications, Pypestream, raises $2.3M in an undisclosed round. Link
- In-app feedback tools for app developers, Apptentive, raises $1.7M in a series A round from Grayhawk Capital. Link
- Virtual support agents for eCommerce into a crowdsourced model, Eloquent Labs, raises $1.5M in a seed round from Khosla Ventures, XSeed Capital, Alchemist Accelerator. Link
- Chatbot platform for customer support and sales, Exceed.ai, raises $1.5M in a seed round from Glilot Capital Partners. Link
- Cloud-based communication service for SMB’s, LiveNinja, got acquired by Net2phone(Telephony and SIP trunking services provider) for an undisclosed amount. Link
- Customer experience management platform, Ramyam Lab, got acquired by Arvato Financial Solutions Nordics. Link
- BPM leader, Pegasystems launched its AI-powered self-service advisor for agent productivity as well as external consumers. Link
- Salesforce adds ‘Einstein’ artificial intelligence tools to its customer service platform. Link
- Freshdesk launches app marketplace with 100+ integrations, to take on Salesforce and Zoho. Link
- Zendesk is looking to move beyond customer service and turn into an AI-powered MarTech giant by rolling out new AI capabilities. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Limitless (2016, Burnham) – On-demand crowdsourced customer service platform to leverage brand ambassadors in customer service operations. Backed by Unilever Ventures.
ServiceTarget (2016, Bozeman) – It is an all-in-one integrated platform for deploying self-service walkthroughs, guides, personalized customer journeys.
LEADER BOARD – CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE
Suite
Verint (1994, Melville, IPO) – Customer engagement optimization suite, security intelligence, and fraud prevention solutions. Went public in 2002.
RightNow Technologies (1997, Bozeman, IPO, Acq.) – Omnichannel customer experience suite solutions. Went public in 2004. Acquired by Oracle in 2011 for $1.5B.
Interactive Intelligence (1994, Indianapolis, IPO. Acq.) – Omnichannel communication platform for unified communications, workforce optimization, and business process automation. Went public in 1999.
Genesys (1990, Daly City) – Integrated multichannel customer experience and contact center solutions in the cloud and on-premises for SMB’s. Got acquired by TCV and Permira in 2012 for $1.5 billion.
Call Center – Suite
8×8 (1987, San Jose, IPO) – Provides cloud hosted call center services including call center, video, mobile and unified communications to SMB’s. Went public in 1997 for developing video compression semiconductors and software.
inContact (1997, Midvale, IPO) – On-demand call center software with ACD, skill-based routing, CTI, speech recognition, customer feedback features. Went public in 2012. Got acquired by Nice Systems in 2016.
Five9 (2001, California, IPO) – Cloud contact center software helping enterprises manage inbound, outbound and blended multi-channel solutions. Went public in 2014.
Fuze (2006, Cambridge, $283M) – Unified communications solutions for Enterprises. Thinkingphones acquired Fuze in Nov’2015 and in Feb’16, the combined company took Fuze’s name. Backed by Insight Venture Partners, Summit Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners, Index Ventures, Khosla Ventures, Technology Crossover Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Hermes Growth Partners, Hermes Growth Partners, Wellington Management, G20 Ventures.
Call Center – Suite – Crowdsourced Agents
LiveOps (2000, Redwood, $51M) – Multi-channel cloud contact center solutions used for managing inbound, outbound and blended calls through crowdsourced customer service agents. Backed by CMEA Capital, Menlo Ventures, Benchmark Capital, Comerica Bank. Marlin Equity Partners acquired its Cloud Platform business in 2015.
Call Center – Analytics
Mattersight (2006, Chicago, IPO) – SaaS based behavioral analytics solutions for call centers based on customer and employee interactions. Went public in 2011.
CallMiner (2002, Florida, $53M) – Cloud-based speech and text analytics solutions for analyzing interactions across multi-channel communication channels. Backed by NewSpring Growth Capital, In-Q-Tel, Inflexion Partners, Sigma Partners.
Call Center – Front End
Talkdesk (2011, SF, $25M) – Browser based call center software for sales and support using services like Twilio to integrate call facilities on browser and mobile. Backed by DFJ Growth, Storm Ventures, and Salesforce Ventures.
Call Center – Agent Productivity
nVoq (2000, Boulder, $44M) – Provides workflow optimization and voice navigation system that enables customer service reps. Investors undisclosed.
CustomerMatrix (2013, NYC, $19.5M) – Cognitive computing platform for CRM teams. Backed by HSBC, NewFund Capital, Aster Capital, True Global Ventures.
Call Center – Virtual Agents
Nuance Communications (1992, Burlington, IPO) – Speech, Imaging, and keypad solutions for businesses and consumers. Offers conversational virtual assistant solutions with speech recognition, natural language understanding, and voice biometric solutions. Went public in 2000.
Interactions Corporation (2004, Franklin, $160M) – Conversational virtual assistant solutions using AI for delivering automated natural language communications for customer care. Backed by Sigma Partners, North Hill Ventures, Updata Partners, Cross Atlantic Partners, Prime Ventures, Softbank Capital.
Help Desk – Omnichannel
Zendesk (2007, SF, IPO) – Integrated multi-channel cloud customer support ticketing system with self-service, live chat, and mobile support solutions. Went public in 2014.
Freshdesk (2010, Chennai, $150M) – Integrated multi-channel cloud-based Helpdesk ticketing solutions with self-service, live chat, in-app support, internal service desk. Has its office in Chennai also. Backed by Accel, Google Capital, Tiger Global.
Help Desk – Social
Hootsuite (2008, Vancouver, $225M) – Social media management system for businesses. Backed by Fidelity Investments, Insight Partners, Accel Partners, OMERS Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Blumberg Capital.
Sprout Social (2010, Chicago, $61M) – Social media management and engagement tools for enterprises. Backed by NEA, Goldman Sachs, Lightbank.
Sparkcentral (2011, San Francisco, $38M) – Social customer service platform, integrated with the mobile platform. Backed by Split Rock Partners, Graph Ventures, LRM, Group MC, Jackson Square Ventures, Social Capital.
Help Desk – Live Chat
Liveperson (1995, NYC, IPO) – Live chat, voice, and video with real-time metrics and hosted platform. Went public in 2000.
Intercom (2011, SF, $116M) – Integrated platform for support, marketing and sales. Provides live conversation solutions to web and mobile customers. Backed by Iconiq Capital, BVP.
Help Desk – Live Chat – Crowdsourced Experts
Needle (2010, Salt Lake City, $19.5M) – On-demand advocates for engaging with customers for support and sales. Backed by Shasta Ventures, Lightbank, Rembrandt Venture Partners.
ChatID (2011, NYC, $19M) – Allows collaboration between brands and retailers enabling real-time conversation between product experts and customers on retail sites and stores. Backed by Costanoa Venture Capital, FirstMark Capital, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Mack Capital, BoxGroup.
Help Desk – Live Text
Relay Network (2010, Radnor, $19M) – Secure customer service texting solutions. Backed by First Round, Karlani Capital, NewSpring Capital.
Zipwhip (2007, Seattle, $17M) – Offers Two-way text messaging from mobiles, landlines and toll-free numbers. Backed by Ronin Capital, Lakewest Venture Partners.
HeyWire (2010, Cambridge, $13M, Acq.) – Enterprise mobile messaging platform by connecting customers with businesses with two-way texting platform. Adds customer texting to existing toll-free numbers and office phone numbers. Backed by Lauder Partners.Got acquired by Salesforce in 2016.
Help Desk – Live Text – Virtual Agents
Digital Genius (2013, London, $7M) – Uses AI, cognitive computing, neural networks and NLP to automate human-like conversations in real time. Backed by Lumia Capital, RRE Ventures, Spider Capital Partners, Lowercase Capital, Salesforce, Lerer Hippeau Ventures, Lowercase Capital, Bloomberg Beta, Metamorphic Ventures.
Help Desk – Instant Messengers
Smooch (2015, Montreal East, $8M) – Integrated customer messaging software over social messaging apps, SMS, web chat and in-app. Backed by TA Associates, Inovia Capital, Real Ventures.
LiveNinja (2012, Miami, Acq.) – Integrated interface for B2C Communications over Instant Messengers. Backed by Citi, Start Capital, Comcast Ventures, Scout Ventures, Seedinvest, CV Catalyst Fund, AGP Miami, Anzu Partners, Dadneo. Got acquired by Net2phone in Q1’17.
Help Desk – Instant Messengers – Virtual Agents
Assist (2015, San Francisco, $5.5M) – Platform enabling automated chat for businesses. Backed by Structure Capital, Binary Capital.
Msg.ai (2014, NYC, $2.7M) – Artificial Intelligence based chatbot for conversational commerce. Backed by Y Combinator, KBS Ventures, Bowery Capital, Advancit Capital, Sterling Partners, Indicator Ventures, Dunnhumby, Galvanize, BoxGroup, Salesforce Ventures.
Help Desk – Mobile App Enablers
HelpShift (2011, Pune, $38M) – In-app support Help Desk platform. Backed by Microsoft Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Salesforce, Intel Capital, True Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures.
Apptentive (2011, Seattle, $10M) – In-app feedback tools for app developers. Backed by SurveyMonkey, Google Ventures, Techstars, Founders’ Co-op, Golden, Origin Ventures, Social Leverage.
Help Desk – Visual Communication
Cafex Communications (2013, NYC, $48M) – Contextual communication solutions including live chat, co-browsing, screen sharing along with visual IVR for engagement across web and mobile. Backed by Intel Capital, Illuminate Ventures, USAA.
Tokbox (2007, SF, $26M, Acq.) – PaaS company that provides hosted infrastructure, API and SDK for messaging, video and live chat, co-browsing, screen sharing. Acquired by Telefonica Digital in 2012.
Helpdesk – Virtual Agents
Wise.io (2012, Berkeley, $2.59M, Acq.) – Automates the process of ticket routing and recommended responses on tickets through machine learning and predictive analytics. Backed by Voyager Capital. Got acquired by GE in 2016.
Self Service – Knowledge Management
Coveo (2005, Quebec, $70M) – Knowledge Management software for customer support and employee engagement through Big Data Analytics. Through enterprise search technology it creates relevant context from both structured and unstructured data. Backed by IQ Venture Advisors, Propulsion Ventures, BDC Venture Capital.
Bloomfire (2010, Austin, $33M) – SaaS workspace collaboration tool that provides internal knowledgebase to customer service and sales reps for collaboration and onboarding new employees. Backed by Austin Ventures, Redpoint Ventures, Silver Creek Ventures.
Self Service – Customer Communities
Lithium (2001, SF, $152M) – Social Customer experience management software which combines online customer community applications with social web and CRM applications for engaging with customers through peer to peer support concept. Backed by Emergence Capital Partners, NEA, Benchmark Capital, Sapphire Ventures, Shasta Ventures.
VisionCritical (2000, Vancouver, $42.5M) – Customer Intelligence platform for customer communities for real-time feedback from customers and stakeholders, insights, innovation and new product development. Backed by Georgian Partners, Difference Capital, Omers Ventures.
Mzinga (2007, Burlington, $42.5M) – Enterprise learning management and social engagement solutions for customer support. It builds social communities for brand management and peer to peer support with content authorization tools and services. Also provides social learning platform for employee onboarding and engagement. Backed by W Capital Partners, Bluecrest Capital Finance, GE Equity, Acadia Woods Partners, Shared Capital Partners.
Feedback Analytics – CEM – Omnichannel
Medallia (2001, Palo Alto, $255M) – SaaS CEM company which captures feedback across multi-channel with text analytics for analyzing customer decision journey. Backed by Sequoia Capital.
Clarabridge (2006, Reston, $125M) – SaaS customer intelligence company which uses NLP and machine learning combining text analytics with customer metrics for analyzing customer journey. Backed by General Catalyst Partners, Summit Partners.
Feedback Analytics – CEM – Social
newBrandAnalytics (2010, Washington, $35M, Acq.) – Monitoring and analysis solutions for customer feedback on social review sites for hospitality, retail, and government industries. Acquired by Sprinklr in 2015.
Feedback Analytics – Survey Tools + Market Research
Qualtrics (2002, Provo, $220M) – SaaS-based platform to act on voice of customer, employee and customer feedback. Backed by Insight Partners, Accel Partners, and Sequoia Capital.
Satmetrix (1997, $27M) – Satmetrix NPX, a software platform to improve customer satisfaction and promote customer loyalty and NPS. Backed by Stanford University, Four Rivers Group, Sutter Hill Ventures, Aspen Ventures.
Complaints Resolution
Modria (2011, San Jose, $13M) – Cloud platform for resolving customer disputes with customized resolution rules. Facilitates mediation and negotiation between buyers and sellers. Backed by Foundry Group.
Complaints Resolution – Virtual Agents
Cognicor Technologies (2011, Barcelona, $1.07M) – Automated complaints resolution system using AI to resolve customer complaints. Backed by Wayra and Lanzame Capital.
Interaction Analytics
Nice Systems (1986, Ra’anana, IPO) – Customer interaction analytics solutions through Big Data infrastructure and predictive analytics. Went public in 1996 for its security solutions.
Attensity (2000, Palo Alto, $105M) – SaaS based text and voice analytics solutions for enterprises. Backed by In-Q-Tel, Palomar Ventures, Jefferson Partners, Triangle Venture Capital Group.
Leaderboard includes all the top funded, IPO and successfully running bootstrapped companies along with their location, founding year and funding amount.
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