Freshworks acquires US-based customer success service Natero

California-based Freshworks, a global leader in customer engagement software, announced today that it has acquired Natero, a cloud-based customer success service. The terms of the deal were undisclosed.

Natero is a California-based customer success software for B2B SaaS companies founded by veterans of big data and distributed systems. Its solution, powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) combines predictive analytics, customer intelligence, and workflow management so that businesses can understand their customers better and prevent churn.

A statement from Freshworks said that with Natero’s technology, Freshworks puts actionable data in the hands of customer success professionals. This also helps companies account expansion and manage more customers with fewer resources.

Commenting on the acquisition, Freshworks Founder-CEO, Girish Mathrubootham, pointed out,

“Customer engagement should not stop with just marketing, sales and support. Today, every business needs to invest in proactively managing customers."

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Bearing this out was a Freshworks report on the New Rules of Customer Engagement, which found that 56 percent of global consumers said they would switch brands after just one bad service experience. So, businesses must engage customers in real time and at scale to keep satisfaction high and churn low.

“We share Freshworks’ passion and commitment to providing an unrivaled customer experience,” said Craig Soules, Founder and CEO of Natero.

He added, “We are excited to join the growing Freshworks global team as we help businesses acquire and keep customers for life.”

Natero uses detailed analysis of how customers have behaved in the past create customer health scores. This lets businesses identify behavioural trends and discover insights about their customers - without the use of analysts or developers. By extension, this allows businesses to expand their customer base, identify any red flags and increase customer retention.

“The acquisition extends our ‘customer-for-life’ vision to all teams, including account and customer success managers, who require up-to-date customer usage and health data to proactively engage those accounts at risk of churn or ready to buy more,” Mathrubootham explained.

According to Esteban Kolsky, Principal of ThinkJar and a leading CRM analyst, the ability to provide superior customer service determines the ability of a business to survive and thrive.

“Yet, AI and machine learning aren’t magic pills, taken by themselves. Magic occurs when silos are eliminated so that predictive capabilities can be gained across the organisation. Predictive AI can then increase customer engagement and improve the experience at every customer touchpoint,” he adds.

Founded in October 2010, Freshworks is backed by venture capital firms such as Accel Partners, Tiger Global Management, CapitalG and Sequoia Capital India. In July 2018, it raised $100 million in funding, taking its total funding raised to $250 million and valuation to beyond $1 billion.

The company, which was set up in Chennai, is today headquartered in San Mateo, California, and has 2,000+ employees and 150,000 clients.

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