Helpshift bags participation from Cisco Investments in Series B

Helpshift, a provider of customer support through enterprise-level, in-app experiences, has announced to have bagged fresh funding from Cisco Investments that has recently joined their Series B funding round. This follows previous investors such as Intel Capital, Microsoft Ventures and Salesforce Ventures. As one of Cisco Investments’ portfolio companies, Helpshift and Cisco plan to explore opportunities to integrate Helpshift’s in-app customer support solutions with Cisco’s leading contact center solutions. According to the California-based company, with a drastic shift to in-app support for business to consumer communication, its Series B round will enable it to further enhance its autonomous customer support. Additionally, the company believes that as mobile replaces the web as the primary channel through which customers engage, the $350 billion contact center industry is expected to take advantage of this new channel. “Apps have become the primary way in which consumers and employees in the enterprise are accessing products and services. Just like customer service moved away from phone (voice) to email in the era of the Web, we are now seeing a transition where customer service is moving inside apps to eliminate all the friction in the process of supporting users,” said Abinash Tripathy, CEO and Co-Founder, Helpshift.

“With the additional funding from Cisco Investments, we are looking to help the entire contact center industry transition from being reactive to proactive while driving higher customer satisfaction and lowering cost,” Tripathy noted.

In the smartphone era, customers largely rely on mobile apps to interact with products and services. By bringing customer service in-app, Helpshift claims to have eliminated the frustration of customers having to leave the app to get support. The company provides a seamless messaging experience to enable customers to talk to companies like they would talk to their friends.

“We continue to invest in strategic solutions to help propel technology developments that will solve challenges for our customers, partners, and beyond. Through our investment, we look forward to supporting Helpshift to enable companies to provide best in-class mobile customer care through their data-centric messaging platform,” said Rob Salvagno, Head of Cisco Investments and Vice President of Cisco Corporate Development.