Freshdesk buys ex-Google execs' AI-based social chat platform Chatimity

Chatimity built to enable user interactions and improve engagement for its three million users

Chennai-based cloud-based customer engagement software provider Freshdesk has acquired Chatimity, a social chat platform that developed artificial intelligence (AI) and chatbot technology. Cost of acquisition was not disclosed.

Chatimity was built to enable user interactions and improve engagement for its three million users.

The acquisition is the sixth in just over a year as Freshdesk looks to enhance product development and capabilities within the chat platform and beyond, said the company.

Consumers expect a high level of connectivity and personal attention from businesses. With millions of people reaching out to businesses everyday, companies regardless their size, are looking at options to engage with the customers at scale. Offering this customer engagement with personal touch is also important and the acquisition would help the company to address this need, it said.

"People want a fast, personalised response. Chat will play an important role in the future of communication for customer service but scaling that infrastructure continues to be a challenge," said Girish Mathrubootham, Founder and CEO of Freshdesk.

He added, with Chatimity's focus on artificial intelligence and chatbots, the Chatimity team, now part of Freshdesk, has already started to create a scalable customer engagement chat platform that is future ready.

"Our team was able to get a glimpse of what Freshdesk was already working on and we immediately knew that our team and technology would complement and accelerate product development at Freshdesk with a strong focus on AI and chat tech," said Tarkeshwar Thakur, Co-founder and CEO of Chatimity. "Delivering a top-notch customer experience over chat continues to be a challenge for many companies, a problem we intend to solve with some of the next-gen chat products we are building at Freshdesk."