Freshdesk acquires Airwoot in fifth acquisition in last 12 months

BENGALURU: Freshdesk, a cloud-based customer service software provider, has acquired Airwoot, a machine-learning startup that helps brands deliver customer service on social media. Airwoot is the company's fifth acquisition in the past 12 months.

“Delivering customer support via social media continues to be a challenge for many companies given the high volume of noise in the medium,“ said Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of Freshdesk. “Airwoot's AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology provides us a powerful platform to power the social engagement centers of the future.“

Airwoot uses machine learning to automate the process of identifying conversations on social media that require immediate attention, such as queries, grievances and incidents and can thus alert companies to act. “We look forward to expanding Airwoot's impact to Freshdesk's 70,000-strong customer base,“ said Saurabh Arora, CEO of Airwoot. “This will help companies scale their teams in the right manner and provide stellar support on social media.“

Airwoot was founded in 2012 by a team of PhD dropouts. The startup raised investment from Kae Capital in 2013. Top angel investors Rajan Anandan, Sasha Mirchandani, Sunil Kalra and Samir Sood also participated in the round. The company was part of the eighth batch of The Morpheus accelerator. At Freshdesk, the Airwoot team will be focused on enhancing the company's current social media offerings.