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IRISH-FOUNDED CUSTOMER SERVICE software firm Intercom has sealed a $125 million funding round that values the seven-year-old company at $1.275 billion.
The €100 million Series D fundraising propels the company to ‘unicorn’ status, a cohort of around 200 venture capital-backed businesses worldwide that are valued at more than $1 billion.
The latest investment round, which takes the funding attracted by the company to over $240 million, was led by Kleiner Perkins with GV – previously known as Google Ventures – also participating.
The company said it would use the money to “invest aggressively in the development of its customer platform”, which clients can use to deal with their customers from the enquiry stage through to after-sales support replacing tools like email and enquiry forms.
Intercom was started in San Francisco in 2011 by Irish quartet Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee and David Barrett.
The company said it currently has over 25,000 paying customers using its customer service messaging tools. Its diverse client list includes Sotheby’s, Hootsuite and Yahoo!.
Intercom released figures a year ago to show that it had hit $5o million in annual recurring revenue in around three years, faster than other fancied software firms such as Twilio and Shopify – although not as fast as workplace communications outfit Slack.
A display at Intercom's Dublin officeSource: Killian Woods/Fora.ieMachine learning
In a statement, CEO McCabe said the company would have a "special focus on functionality for larger organisations", while it would also invest in "machine learning technologies to launch some powerful, market-first smart automation features".
In addition to its international offices, Intercom has a large research and development team based at its Dublin office in the former Anglo HQ.
Last month, the company announced plans to hire another 150 peoplefor its local workforce to add to the more than 220 people currently employed here.
It last tapped investors in 2016, when it raised $50 million from Index Ventures and several other backers, including Slack founder Stewart Butterfield.
While Intercom doesn't publicly dispose detailed financial figures, McCabe said in a blog post last year that Intercom was "trending aggressively" towards being a profitable business.
Written by Peter Bodkin and posted on Fora.ie
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Good product. Well done to them.
Brilliant good news story. Well done. Great to see you bringing the jobs back to dublin. Don’t be minding the begrudgers!
Ha. A unicorn that’s (last line) “trending aggressively to becoming a profitable company”!
@Adrian: only applies to the definition of its valuation not its profitability
@Adrian: Twitter has been around over 15 years and still hasn’t posted a profit. Profitability in Tech is not as important as in traditional businesses
@ForeverFeel1ng: You’re joking right? Twitter surviving for 15 years without making a profit hints that it’s being kept afloat for other reasons, just like loss making newspapers.
@ForeverFeel1ng: Said no investor ever. Twitter is being kept afloat like a newspaper making losses: it’s a great propaganda and political agitation tool.
Intercom, isn’t that a communication device used in shopping centres. A mic and a speaker. The simple things, eh! Wish I thought of it.
@Paddy O Sullivan: That’s a tannoy.
Very interesting and innovative business model!
Finally, a powerful, scalable, efficient, growth supporting, and cost effective management tool / business platform capable of capturing and pulling together all channels of communications between likely participators in the global marketplace seeking the particular product or service and the firm offering same.
Early days, but with 25,000 customers already contributing $50 mil in annual Revenues, outlook is excellent for Intercom. Tenfold increase in customer base is a distinct possibility, which would comfortably justify existing valuations mentioned. Clearly, with $241 m invested already, someone has lots of faith!
Congratulations to all concerned!
And btw what is it? A messaging service wow, probably a advanced data collection service. That’s were the money is, apparently. Well done Irish guys! You’ve sold your soul for a few bob.
@Paddy O Sullivan: Jesus you’re some begrudger. They’re making money and putting Ireland on the tech map globally. Selling their souls? Would you rather them be on the dole? They’re working.
@Paddy O Sullivan: Close…but no cigar. It is customer service software actually with plenty of uses. Instead of whinging about it familiarise yourself with the company and the software it provides
I’m a bit uncomfortable with these valuations on, thus far, unprofitable companies.
The FAANG companies are already responsible for a huge proportion of market valuations. I hope we’re not heading for another dotcom bubble.
I wouldn’t be investing in them, they are swelled with VC money, $50mil Revenue is peanuts and VC money will need to be paid back sometime. Their product is essentially a chatbox which is tiresome for website visitors and very expensive compared to free alternatives (Drift etc)
They will be bust in a couple of years, big valuation comes with a price… But hopefully they will make a lot of moneys for them self’s.
This is the type of homegrown success and entrepnurial spirit we need to foster.
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