– USA, CA – Helpshift, the leading CRM for mobile apps, today announced that it has closed its Series A financing round of $10 million. The funding round was led by Intel Capital with participation from Visionnaire Ventures and existing investors True Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners. This follows the company’s seed funding of $3.2 million in October 2012, bringing the total to $13.2 million in funding to date.
“We’ve seen incredible global adoption of our platform among all parts of the app ecosystem, from games to m-commerce, to lifestyle apps,” said Abinash Tripathy, co-founder and CEO, Helpshift. “We’ve realized we have something that most mobile companies could benefit from and the only challenge for us has been the ability to scale to meet the explosive demand. This round of funding will enable us to attack each of these major mobile verticals and bring the benefits of Helpshift to thousands of app publishers,” he said.
In just one year, Helpshift has been installed on more than 150 million devices and reduced incoming support tickets by more than 90 percent for leading companies including Supercell, Glu Mobile, Flipboard and other top app publishers. Helpshift is fast becoming the customer management platform for mobile publishers interested in increasing user engagement and lowering churn.
To climb to the top of the charts and stay relevant in the highly competitive world of mobile apps, companies need to communicate with their customers and directly engage with them in their apps. The biggest problem in the app economy today is that more than 90 percent of the users that download an app churn away in the first 90 days. Helpshift provides a native mobile SDK that can be integrated into any mobile app to enable two-way communications, helping companies talk to their customers directly inside their apps. Higher engagement with users in-app improves the overall customer experience, and drives higher app store ratings and has been proven to reduce churn by 40 percent.
“Mobile gaming is the most significant app economy today, and as a result, most customer centric innovation in mobile happens here. As a media executive and investor, Helpshift’s machine learning based CRM technology allows leading gaming and m-commerce companies to focus their interactions with users in near tailored approach. Smart. So it’s not surprising Helpshift is rapidly being adopted by the who’s-who of the gaming industry. And we, at Visionnaire Ventures, are backing Helpshift to continue growing their global footprint, while delivering great customer experiences,” said Taizo Son, co-founder, GungHo Online Entertainment Inc., and an L.P. of Visionnaire Ventures. Susan Choe, managing partner at Visionnaire Ventures will be joining the Helpshift board.
About Helpshift
Helpshift is the leading CRM provider for companies building Mobile apps and smart devices. Helpshift is installed on over 150 million devices worldwide and is used by some of today’s largest mobile companies, including Supercell, Glu Mobile, Flipboard and ModCloth. The platform features a number of major benefits for app publishers and users by improving the customer experience, driving higher app ratings and user retention, and saving time and money in the support of apps. Helpshift has raised $13.2 million and is backed by Intel Capital, True Ventures, Visionnaire Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel’s global investment and M&A organization, makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, mobility, consumer Internet, digital media and semiconductor manufacturing. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US $11 billion in over 1,339 companies in 55 countries. In that timeframe, 206 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 344 were acquired or participated in a merger. In 2013, Intel Capital invested US $333 million in 146 investments with approximately 49 percent of funds invested outside North America.
About True Ventures
Founded in 2005, True Ventures is a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm that invests in early-stage technology startups. With four funds and approximately $900 million in capital under management, True provides seed and Series A funding to the most talented entrepreneurs in today’s fastest growing markets. With a mission to make the world a better place for entrepreneurs, True encourages each founder’s vision and has built resources to empower the employees, families and communities of its portfolio companies. The firm maintains a strong founder community and offers innovative educational opportunities to its portfolio, helping entrepreneurs achieve higher levels of success and impact. With more than 150 companies funded and multiple companies acquired, the current True portfolio has helped create over 3,500 jobs.
About Visionnaire Ventures
Visionnaire is a global technology investment firm based in San Francisco and Tokyo. Visionnaire invests in seed, early and growth stage teams that leverage technology to evolve Internet and mobile experiences. Visionnaire consists of entrepreneurs and executives who have founded and operated global media companies, as well as driving corporate M&A in leading online companies. Thus Visionnaire team is able to provide what early stage to growth stage companies need to build a globally successful company.
About Nexus Venture Partners
Nexus Venture Partners is India’s leading venture capital fund, with offices in Mumbai, India and Silicon Valley. The team has invested in a variety of companies leading to numerous successful public offerings and M&A transactions. It has over $600mn under management with an active portfolio of over 50 companies across technology, Internet, media, consumer, and business services sectors Nexus partner companies include Cloud.com, Gluster, Pubmatic, DimDim, Snapdeal.com, Pubmatic, Netmagic, Druva and Unmetric.
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