salesforce is announced plan to obtain airkit.aiis a low-code platform that helps e-commerce companies build AI-powered customer service agents.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2017 and based in Redwood City, California, Airkit was created by Adam Evans and Steven Ehikian, who sold a previous big data startup called RelateIQ to Salesforce for $390 million in 2014.
among them original outfit, Airkit was a self-service customer engagement platform that allowed businesses to consolidate data silos and assist with use cases such as new user onboarding.But last month, the company Restarted as Airkit.ai We launched our first ready-to-use integrated product, a GPT-4-based platform. This allows companies like OpenTable and ShipBob to build specialized customer service chatbots that can handle queries about order status, refunds, product information, and more. .
air kit. Image credits: air kit
Airkit.ai’s ties to Salesforce extend beyond the founder’s previous company. The two launched the new company in 2020 with $28 million in funding from investors including Accel and Salesforce Ventures, and have invested in subsequent rounds, bringing Airkit.ai’s total funding to $6,800 over its six-year history. It amounted to 1 million dollars.
And last year, Airkit I also landed on AppExchange, Salesforce’s enterprise cloud marketplace.
It’s clear that the hype fueled by ChatGPT and the broader generative AI movement has investors bending over backwards to back the next big thing. So a generative AI startup with such strong ties to Salesforce will always be an attractive proposition, especially given that Salesforce recently committed to investing $500 million in the generative AI startup.
When the deal closes, expected by January 2024, Airkit.ai will be integrated into the company’s customer service platform Service Cloud, and Evans will continue to lead the business, Salesforce said in a statement.