Leena AI
Leena AI, the Palo Alto, California-based automated human resources (HR) and employee helpdesk, announced on September 28 it had raised $30 million in a Series B financing round, bringing the company’s total amount raised to $40 million. New investors Bessemer Venture Partners led the round with participation from existing investor Greycroft and an investment from Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin‘s B Capital Group. The fresh capital infusion will accelerate product innovation for the company’s conversational artificial intelligence (AI)-backed platform for new and existing customers. Leena AI also plans to expand its employee experience suite to products for IT, sales, and finance teams by early 2022.
Kore.ai
On September 29, conversational AI software company Kore.ai announced it had raised $50 million in a Series C funding led by Vistara Growth and PNC, with additional participation from NextEquity Partners, Nicola Wealth, and Beedie Capital. Based in Orlando, Florida, Kore.ai also secured an additional $20 million credit facility from Sterling National Bank, bringing total funding to $70 million. Kore.ai said it plans to use a significant amount of the funds to scale efforts in its drive to become the leader in Experience Optimization (XO), elevating enterprise customer, agent, and employee experiences through AI-native platforms and products.
Terminus and Zylotech
As September drew to a close, Atlanta, Georgia-based Terminus acquired Zylotech, the business-to-business (B2B) customer data platform (CDP) headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. With the September 30 acquisition, account-based engagement platform Terminus launched Terminus CDP, a standalone suite of solutions that enables customers to continuously cleanse go-to-market data and discover new buying committees at their target accounts.
Informatica
Informatica, the provider of data integration software and services headquartered in Redwood City, California, announced on October 1 that it had filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) connected to a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of shares of its common stock. The number of shares and the price range for the proposed offering have not yet been determined. Informatica has applied to list its common stock on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “INFA.”
Qualtrics and Clarabridge
Also on October 1, Provo, Utah-based CXM software provider Qualtrics announced it had completed the acquisition of Clarabridge, the conversational analytics company headquartered in Reston, Virginia. The acquisition brings together the AI-powered platform and software of Clarabridge with the experience management platform of Qualtrics, allowing companies to discover and analyze customer feedback from indirect sources, such as support conversations, chats, social media posts, and review sites.
ResultsCX
On October 6, a change in ownership was announced for ResultsCX, the Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based provider of automation-enabled services to the healthcare, telecom, media, and retail industries. Ownership of ResultsCX switched from One Equity Partners (OEP) to ChrysCapital. ResultsCX, a CX partner to Fortune 100 and 500 companies for three decades, has core expertise in analytics, contact center as a service (CCaaS), process automation, and its own SupportPredict digital engagement software as a service (SaaS). The new owner, ChrysCapital, is a private equity advisory firm based in Mauritius that invests in services for the technology, finance, pharmaceuticals, and consumer sectors. Previous owner OEP, by comparison, is a New York City-based midmarket private equity firm focused on the industrial, healthcare, and technology sectors in North America and Europe.
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
