Why Freshworks Is Buying AnsweriQ

By Noah Long ● Feb 28, 2020
  • Customer engagement software company Freshworks recently announced the acquisition of AnsweriQ. These are the details.

Customer engagement software company Freshworks recently announced the acquisition of AnsweriQ — which is a provider of machine learning and artificial intelligence for larger enterprises that want to better serve their customers. AnsweriQ will complement Freshworks’ artificial intelligence engine Freddy by enabling enterprise organizations to fully leverage their existing customer data to scale self-service experiences and automate complex customer workflows.

AnsweriQ’s machine learning models leverage artificial intelligence algorithms against millions of customer interactions to generate automated self-service Q&As and improve next-step escalations. And AnsweriQ’s technology augments Freddy’s artificial intelligence capabilities and helps scale self-service for large enterprises. Freddy is going to incorporate AnsweriQ’s artificial intelligence to learn from ticket data and agent actions within the Freshworks Customer-for-Life Cloud and improve customer self-service capabilities.

Freddy is going to extend its capabilities from a knowledge base dependent artificial intelligence engine to learn from ticket conversations on the fly. And Freddy will be able to anticipate customer needs, make recommendations for agents based on conversations, and perform tasks like refunds and cancellations with no manual input required, significantly improving customer self-service and freeing up agent time for handling more complex requests.

Freshworks also revealed that AnsweriQ CEO Pradeep Rathinam is joining the senior executive team as chief customer officer. And Rathinam is going to align the entire organization to make customers advocates for Freshworks by delivering business outcomes. Plus he will oversee the company’s global customer support, onboarding, and customer success organizations, which will further increase satisfaction, retention, and success of the combined customer base, including AnsweriQ’s customers like 2K Games, Freshly and SeatGeek.

This acquisition is Freshworks’ second in under a year and it comes on the heels of nearly 60% year-over-year growth in billings for the company. And now Freshworks has over 2,700 employees working in 13 offices around the world. Recently, Freshworks closed $150 million at a post-financing valuation of $3.5 billion.

Key Quotes:

“Unlike clunky, siloed, legacy SaaS solutions, Freshworks is innovating to deliver a powerful and seamless experience across sales, marketing, customer success, and support functions. With Freshworks’ commitment to deploying enterprise-scale AI to better understand customers and build relationships for life, this acquisition is a natural fit. I’m excited to join Freshworks as their new chief customer officer as we create delightful experiences for enterprises that use our products worldwide.”

– Pradeep Rathinam

“The integration of AnsweriQ’s technology enhances our AI/ML capability in the customer engagement space and offers significant value to our customers. Pradeep brings executive-level acumen and expertise, which will be leveraged in his new role as chief customer officer as we double-down on our efforts to engage and keep customers for life.”

– Freshworks’ founder and CEO Girish Mathrubootham