Mobile Customer Support Platform Helpshift Raises $23M from Microsoft Ventures, Others
Mobile customer support platform Helpshift announced on Tuesday that it has raised $23 million in Series B funding from new investors, Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and existing investors, bringing its total funding to $36.2 million.
Existing investors in Helpshift include Intel Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, True Ventures and Visionnaire Ventures.
The investment closely follows the launch of Microsoft Ventures, a new team that is focused on investing in early stage companies developing products around cloud computing.
Based in San Francisco, Helpshift was launched in 2012. Its customers include Zynga, Virgin Media, Microsoft, WordPress, and other brands, startups and developers. Helpshift currently serves more than 300 million mobile customers monthly.
“Our continued growth is a direct reflection of a capital-intensive support industry that’s ready for change. Consumers are tired of waiting for support agents to get back to them, and companies are tired of staffing expensive support teams to answer common, or even predictable, problems in the first place. People want immediate help, wherever they are, especially when using mobile applications,” Abinash Tripathy, CEO and co-founder of Helpshift said in a statement. “This is the year we champion a new model of support, one that’s better for both consumers, as well as the companies serving them.”
Tripathy said that Helpshift’s financing “will help fuel its continued expansion across teams in R&D, sales and marketing.”
“Helpshift has been a great partner for Microsoft and our investment today represents our confidence in their messaging-based approach to customer service, as we hold a shared value of providing the seamless experience customers want,” said Nagraj Kashyap, corporate vice president, Microsoft Ventures.
