London software company acquires American AI firm after 60 per cent billings growth

A London software company has announced its acquisition of an American AI firm.

Freshworks Inc, which focuses on customer engagement software, announced the acquisition of AnsweriQ Inc, a provider of ML (machine learning) and AI (artificial intelligence) for larger enterprises.

Freshworks’ AI engine, Freddy, will incorporate AnsweriQ’s AI to learn from ticket data and agent actions within the Freshworks Customer-for-Life Cloud and improve customer self-service capabilities.

Freddy will be able to anticipate customer needs, make recommendations for agents based on the conversations and perform tasks such as refunds and cancellations with no manual input required.

The acquisition is Freshworks’ second in less than a year and comes on the heels of nearly 60 per cent year-over-year growth in billings for the company.

Pradeep Rathinam, former AnsweriQ CEO and Freshworks chief customer officer, commented: “Unlike clunky, siloed, legacy SaaS solutions, Freshworks is innovating to deliver a powerful and seamless experience across sales, marketing, customer success and support functions.”

“With Freshworks’ commitment to deploying enterprise-scale AI to better understand customers and build relationships for life, this acquisition is a natural fit.

“I’m excited to join Freshworks as their new chief customer officer as we create delightful experiences for enterprises that use our products worldwide.”

Girish Mathrubootham, Freshworks’ founder and CEO, added: “The integration of AnsweriQ’s technology enhances our AI/ML capability in the customer engagement space and offers significant value to our customers.”

“Pradeep brings executive-level acumen and expertise, which will be leveraged in his new role as chief customer officer as we double-down on our efforts to engage and keep customers for life.”