A daily newsletter summarizing recent activity & interesting start-ups globally
RECENT NOTABLE ACTIVITY – CUSTOMER SERVICE SOFTWARE
- Customer support suite; Genesys announces investment of approximately $900 million from Hellman & Friedman at $3.8 Billion Valuation. Link
- Automated omnichannel customer care focused on automating calling solutions; Interactions raises $56M in series D round led by Revolution Growth, NewSpring Capital and Comcast Ventures. Link
- Personalized customer service interactions using AI; Takt raises $30M in series A round led by BCG Digital Ventures. Link
- Point of sale customer feedback for SME Hospitality; truRating raises $12.6M in series A round Sandaire, a private family investment group. Link
- Integrated customer messaging software over social messaging apps, SMS, web chat and in-app; Smooch raises $7.6M in series A round led by Real Ventures and iNovia Capital. Link
- Integrated messaging toolkit over SMS and social platforms; Centricient raises $6.5M in series A round from Venrock and Next Frontier Capital. Link
- Review management and reputation monitoring platform; ReviewTracker raises $4M in series B round led by American Family Ventures, Square 1 Bank. Link
- Texting software platform; Zingle raises $3M in series A round from Rincon Ventures and Crosscut Ventures. Link
- Contact center software; 3CLogic raises $1M in convertible debt round. Link
- AI based interaction analytics for Retailers; Parlamind raises $1.67M in seed round from Motu Ventures, Asgard Capital and Angelfund. Link
- Customer experience management for retail and restaurant chains; Benchmark Intelligence raises $500K in seed funding from San Joaquin Capital. Link
- Live chat software for web and in-app; Nudgespot got acquired by Boomtrain for an undisclosed amount. Link
- Omnichannel interaction optimization platform for eCommerce; Touchcommerce got acquired by Nuance for $215M in a cash and stock deal. Link
- CRM for call centers; CoralTree Systems got acquired by Netcracker for an undisclosed amount. Link
- Interactice virtual assistants developer; Codebaby got acquired by idAvatars for an undisclosed amount. Link
- Unified communication solutions for Contact centers; Interactive Intelligence explores sales options according to sources. Link
- Google is bringing two AI software solutions to automate customer conversations. Link
- Genesys in bid to buy Avaya’s call center business according to sources. Link
SOME INTERESTING STARTUPS FOUND
Witlingo (2016, Washington D.C) – SaaS based Conversational customer service assistants for voice platforms and devices.
RevTwo (2016, Boston) – In-app Helpdesk support suite with services such as chat, phone calls, screen-sharing sessions.
ICM Hub (2016, Manhattan) – AI based customer support software for Travel companies.
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) – 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 softwares.
inContact (1997, Midvale, IPO) – On demand call center software with ACD, skill based routing, CTI, speech recognition, customer feedback features. Went public in 2012.
Five9 (2001, California, IPO) – Cloud contact center software helping enterprises manage inbound, outbound and blended multi channel solutions. Went public in 2014.
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 behavioural analytics solutions for call centers based on customer and employee interactions. Went public in 2011.
CallMiner (2002, Florida, $70M) – 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 – Agents Productivity
nVoq (2000, Boulder, $24M) – 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.
Helpdesk – 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, $95M) – 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.
Helpdesk – 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.
Falcon Social (2010, Copenhagen, $25M) – Social media management platform for enterprises. Backed by Prime Ventures, Target Partners, Northcap Partners.
Helpdesk – E-Mail
Helpscout (2011, Boston, $6M) – E-Mail customer support Helpdesk for SMB’s. Backed by Foundry Group.
Helpdesk – Virtual Agents
Wise.io (2012, Berkeley, $2.59M) – Automates the process of ticket routing and recommended responses on tickets through machine learning and predictive analytics. Backed by Voyager Capital.
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.
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.
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.
Visual Communication
Cafex Communications (2013, NYC, $31.5M) – 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.
Live Text
Relay Network (2010, Radnor, $19M) – Secure customer service texting solutions. Backed by First Round, Karlani Capital, NewSpring Capital.
HeyWire (2010, Cambridge, $13M) – 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.
Zipwhip (2007, Seattle, $8M) – Offers Two way text messaging from mobiles, landlines and toll-free numbers. Backed by Ronin Capital, Lakewest Venture Partners
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.
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, Lanzame Capital.
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, $103M) – 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.
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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