Cisco invests $2 million in mobile app based HelpShift

By Raaghav G R

Posted on November 23, 2016

HelpShift Inc. is a mobile app – based customer support company which provides technical support to customers of various companies like VirginMedia, Microsoft, WesternUnion, Flipboard, Shyp, Luxe and WordPress among others. HelpShift announced on Tuesday (22/11/2016) that it had received U.S. $2 million in the form of investments from the network equipment manufacturing giant, Cisco. This investment from Cisco was raised in Series C round of funding. The company had raised U.S. $23 million in its Series B round of funding from various organizations like Microsoft Ventures, Salesforce Ventures and from existing investors like Intel Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, True Ventures and Visionnaire Ventures. HelpShift was founded in the year, 2012 in Pune but is now headquartered in California, U.S.A. Read more on Investments

Until now, customers of companies, seeking technical support, had to e – mail companies or look up FAQs at the company’s website to get solutions to their problems. But now, through HelpShift’s mobile app, customers of a lot of companies can get technical support through one mobile app. There is no need to look up multiple webpages or compose a lot of e – mails to get technical support on various products. With this investment, Cisco will work with HelpShift to integrate HelpShift’s in – app customer support solutions with Cisco’s contact center solutions. “We continue to invest in strategic solutions to help propel technology developments that will solve challenges for our customers, partners and beyond”, said Rob Salvagno, head of Cisco Investments and vice president of Cisco Corporate Development. “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”. “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. 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”, said Abinash Tripathy, CEO at HelpShift. The company says its software is currently installed on 1.3 billion devices!  A major portion of its clients list are gaming companies with millions of users like Supercell, the makers of Clash of Clans and Zynga.

If customers use products, especially technical equipments of various companies, they have to do the tedious task of calling up or e – mailing lot of companies or looking up FAQs posted at multiple websites to get solutions to their problems. But now, with HelpShift’s mobile app, they can get technical solutions if they are using technical equipments or products of many popular companies. This greatly reduces the burden for them and saves a lot of their valuable time. It will certainly bring about a revolutionary transition in the customer support industry, with companies shifting from providing e – mail support to mobile app support. This is no doubt a useful app from HelpShift and the investment from Cisco will definitely help the company grow, add more clients and customers to its mobile app and expand its digital footprint. Read more on Startup News

Cisco invests $2 million in mobile app based HelpShift