Freshdesk acquires mobile first user engagement platform Konotor

Third acquisition by Freshdesk, which is aiming at enhancing support channels and mobile solutions

Cloud-based customer support software major Freshdesk has acquired Chennai-based mobile first user engagement platform Konotor for an undisclosed amount. This is the third acquisition by the Chennai-based Software as a Service (SaaS) based company Freshdesk, which has Accel Partners, Tiger Global Management and Google Capital as its investors.

The company said that the acquisition accelerates Freshdesk's mission to deliver exceptional omnichannel customer service. On October 2, 2015, the company acquired video chat and co-browsing platform 1CLICK and social recommendation app Frilp.

Konotor helps businesses engage with users through features like two-way messaging, in-app support and marketing automation. The company's list of customers including Target, Zomato, Times Internet, Faasos, and BankBazaar.com, among others. Konotor was the winner of the Qualcomm QPrize India Edition in 2014. The founding team includes Srikrishnan Ganesan, Deepak Balasubramanyam and Vignesh Girishankar, who previously built products at companies like Verizon, eBay, and Zynga.

Girish Mathrubootham, CEO, Freshdesk said that mobile?first companies face a unique set of challenges in customer support and user engagement, creating the need for a different solution.

"Konotor has demonstrated significant early success in addressing this need, by enabling marquee apps to engage better with their users. The addition of Konotor to our product suite will help us create powerful customer experiences " he added.

The acquisition would help the company to serve an increasing number of mobile first businesses.

Srikrishnan Ganesan, co-founder, Konotor said, "Coming together with Freshdesk, we will be able to invest more in our technology, and leverage Freshdesk's expertise in customer support. Together we aim to help businesses engage and support their app users"

Konotor has a nine-member team and reaches out to over 40 million through its apps, said Freshdesk.

Freshdesk, headquartered in San Francisco, California and has a development center in Chennai was launched in 2010. It has 50,000 customers around the world, including 3M, Honda, Hugo Boss, University of Pennsylvania, The Atlantic, and Petronas. The company has so far raised around $94 million from three investors.