Software as a Service (SaaS) Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform, Kustomer specializes in Customer Service by leveraging Artificial Intelligence in its technology. Recently, the platform has been acquired by social media conglomerate, owner of WhatsApp and Instagram- Facebook Inc.
As published by the Wall Street Journal, the deal between the two companies was worth $1 billion but unfortunately, other details could not be disclosed as sources requested anonymity due to the confidentiality of information.
Kustomer was founded back in 2015 by Brad Birnbaum and Jeremy Suriel envisioning the aim to bring a new approach to the customer service industry by providing agents and organisations with better data, a unified and compiled data of users, keeping all aspects such as social media, history with the company and other channels under one umbrella for better efficiency and analytics.
Keeping all of this in mind, it is quite clear why Facebook would even be interested to buy such business in the first place. The conglomerate is looking to expand into customer service tools to help and provide businesses that use Facebook with a better set of analytics and tools which are professionally handled by an established company.
Facebook’s agenda is quite understandable as analysts have thrown light on the fact that the social media company is establishing a big business and doubling down on what it presently owns. There are many businesses out there that use Facebook as a platform for business and by acquiring Kustomer, Facebook is strengthening its game by providing these businesses with a better, more efficient platform. The professional tools and resources of the company will significantly benefit these businesses but as we can speculate, these services will not be free of cost. However, there is no confirmation of this being a paid service, yet!
According to reports by PitchBook, Kustomer’s last valuation amounts to USD 710 million and the company also raised USD 174 million in a private equity funding round from existing investors including Boldstart Ventures, Tiger Global Management, Battery Ventures, Coatue, Cisco Investments, Social Leverage and Redpoint Ventures.
Facebook Inc. operating Customer Services on its platform is working fantastically fine for businesses and this acquisition would give the social media company a bigger picture with infinite opportunities. The customer service profile that Facebook owns now, gives the company potential resources to build a better marketplace, regardless of its ‘Facebook’ platform being used.
