Crescendo acquires PartnerHero, raises $50Mn for AI-powered CX
CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES — Customer service startup Crescendo, creators of an augmented-AI customer experience (CX) platform, has announced the acquisition of PartnerHero, a leader in CX innovation.
This strategic move, coupled with a significant funding round, positions Crescendo to disrupt the $500 billion customer service market.
$50 million funding round fuels expansion
Crescendo has successfully closed a series of venture round financings totaling $50 million. The latest Series C fundraiser was led by General Catalyst, with participation from Celesta Capital, Alorica, and strategic angels.
This investment values the company at $500 million post-funding.
Innovative AI-powered CX platform
Crescendo’s unique value proposition lies in its ability to increase customer engagement while reducing costs through a full-stack solution. Unlike traditional CX providers, Crescendo only gets paid for the outcomes it delivers, aligning its interests with those of its enterprise customers.
The company’s approach includes:
- An AI assistant powered by large language models that can be trained on companies’ internal knowledge repositories.
- The ability to process a significant portion of pre-sales inquiries and technical support tickets without human input.
- A quality evaluation tool that improves AI-generated responses over time.
“We are excited to accelerate the adoption of augmented AI in the customer service industry by bringing together the best AI technology and the best customer service team,” said Matt Price, CEO of Crescendo.
“Our unique value proposition is that we can increase customer engagement and lower costs by offering a full-stack solution. PartnerHero sets the gold standard for customer service. We’re delighted to bring augmented AI to a much larger audience. And for CIOs, they can show immediate ROI on AI investments.”
PartnerHero’s acquisition accelerates growth
PartnerHero, known for serving clients such as Airtable, Khan Academy, sweetgreen, Tom’s Shoes, and Udemy, will now provide its customers access to Crescendo’s premier augmented-AI platform for CX.
The acquisition of PartnerHero adds over 200 customers and 3,000 human-in-the-loop CX professionals to Crescendo’s operations, which now span six continents.
Shervin Talieh, CEO of PartnerHero, who will join Crescendo’s leadership team, commented, “In Crescendo, we found a partner who accelerates our transformation toward blended software and services, enabling outcome-based models for our customers.”
As the combined companies move forward, they aim to leverage their strengths in AI technology and human expertise to set new standards in the CX industry, promising improved service quality and efficiency for businesses worldwide.
