Zendesk

Zendesk Inc. is an American customer service software company headquartered in San Francisco, California, USA.[2] It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange with the symbol ZEN and is a constituent of the Russell 2000 Index.[3] Founded in 2007 in Copenhagen, Denmark, Zendesk has 2,000 employees and serves 119,000 paying customers in 150 countries and territories as of 2017.[4][5]

Zendesk
TypePublic
NYSE: ZEN
Russell 1000 Index component
Founded2007 (2007)
FoundersMikkel Svane
Morten Primdahl
Alex Aghassipour
HeadquartersSan Francisco, California, United States
Key people
  • Mikkel Svane (CEO)
  • Alexander Aghassipour (CPO)
  • Elena Gomez (CFO)
  • Jeffrey Titterton (CMO)
  • John Geschke (CLO)
Revenue US$ 1 billion (2021)
OwnerZendesk, Inc.
Number of employees
3,570 (2020)[1]
Websitewww.zendesk.com

History

Zendesk was founded in 2007 by Mikkel Svane, Morten Primdahl, and Alexander Aghassipour, who had experience with customer service software.[6] The company was started in a loft located in Copenhagen, Denmark.[7] In June 2008, it received US$500,000 in seed funding from angel investor Christoph Janz.[8] In 2009, following a $6 million series B funding from Charles River Ventures and Benchmark Capital,[9] the firm moved to San Francisco. In April 2014, it acquired Zopim Technologies Pte Ltd, a Singapore-based provider of live chat software,[10] which eventually became Zopim Premium Live Chat.[11] With the acquisition of Zopim, the firm began moving into the AI chat space,[12] announcing premium AI chatbot partners including Netomi and BotXO.[13][14] In May 2014, the firm became a publicly traded company, debuting with an IPO price of $9 per share.[15] On October 13, 2015, the firm acquired for $45.0 million We Are Cloud SAS,[16] the maker of BIME Analytics software, the technology that Zendesk now uses to power its platform.[17]

Zendesk headquarters in San Francisco

Controversies

Trademark disputes

In 2015, Zendesk filed oppositions at the United States Patent and Trademark Office to 49 trademarks including the word "zen". These include ZenPayroll, Zenware, Zenbilling, Zenscore, Zenplan, ZenCash, and ZenCache. The Electronic Frontier Foundation characterizes this approach of filing multiple trademark infringement lawsuits covering a wide range of businesses (businesses often unrelated to the plaintiff's business) as trademark trolling,[18][19][20] and has condemned the practice.

References
  1. "Zendesk Company Profile". Craft. Retrieved March 4, 2020.
  2. DeFrancesco, Robert (25 September 2014). "Zendesk Masters Customer Service". CMS Wire. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  3. Equities Staff (17 February 2016). "Zendesk Inc (ZEN) Jumps 8.93% on February 17". Equities.com. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  4. "Zendesk Announces Third Quarter 2016 Results". Zendesk. 1 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  5. "About Zendesk". Zendesk. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
  6. Rao, Leena (16 November 2013). "From Its Beginnings In A Denmark Loft, Zendesk's Steady Rise To The Top Of The Helpdesk Heap". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  7. "In The Beginning". Zendesk. Retrieved 17 February 2016.
  8. Malik, Om (18 June 2008). "Zendesk for Help Gets Seed Funding — Tech News and Analysis". Gigaom.com. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  9. Schonfeld, Erick (17 August 2009). "Zendesk Raises $6 Million In B Round, Benchmark's Peter Fenton Joins Board". TechCrunch. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  10. "Zendesk Acquires Live Chat Leader Zopim". Zendesk. 10 April 2014. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  11. "Zendesk Introduces Zopim Premium Live Chat for Larger Teams". Zendesk. 16 April 2015. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  12. "The Best Chatbot Software for Your Business | Zendesk Chatbot". Zendesk. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  13. "Get The Best Zendesk Chatbot Integration - Netomi". 2020-06-17.
  14. "Zendesk Integration". BotXO. Retrieved 2020-06-17.
  15. Owens, Jeremy C. (15 May 2014). "Zendesk prices IPO at $9 a share, brings in $100 million". Mercury News. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  16. "Zendesk Acquires the Company Behind BIME Analytics". Zendesk. 2015-10-13. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  17. Novet, Jordan (13 October 2015). "Zendesk acquires cloud business intelligence startup BIME Analytics for $45M". Venture Beat. Retrieved 9 May 2016.
  18. "Startups fighting over the word 'zen'". Sfgate.com. December 19, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  19. "Zendesk And The Art Of Trademark Maintenance". Forbes. December 20, 2014. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
  20. "Zendesk and the Art of Trademark Trolling". Electronic Frontier Foundation. May 20, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2018.
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