Venture Capital Firms

VC Firm, Benchmark Capital Leads $6 Million Investment in Series B Funding for Zendesk

Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the online help desk company, Zendesk announced today that it has received $6 million in series B funding led by Benchmark Capital. Other investors who participated in this round of funding include the company’s previous investor, Charles River Ventures. Along with this round of funding, Zendesk also announced the introduction of new products to the marketplace.

Zendesk is an online help desk company that provides tech support to all companies, both large and small. Having been around for two years, Zendesk helps businesses with their help desk and customer support by moving all operations to the internet. Zendesk has been taking off in the marketplace by already acquiring many well known companies as customers, which include Twitter, MSNBC, IDEO, Books-a-million, and Scribd. All these companies use Zendesk to improve their tech support. Zendesk is successful, because of its flexible platform that allows companies to set their business rules, service targets, and to track and consolidate requests from all channels. As part of the service that Zendesk offers, all Zendesk clients get a native email support system and Zendesk also offers a whole set of APIs to its customers. Zendesk also offers its customer companies $19 per agent and also has a special offer of $39 for the first three agents as an introductory fee.

Zendesk also provides a service to small businesses and home-based businesses that starts at an affordable $9 per month. This service provides a professional grade fully featured tech support, but onle supports one agent. This service for the small and home-based businesses as called the Zendesk Solo package.

According to the CEO of Zendesk, Mikkel Svane; Zendsesk has disrupted the entire tech support industry because it brings a product to the marketplace that is solid as that of the competition, yet at the same time it is user friendly and very easy to use, being a real treat for those in the social networking industry. Furthermore it is because of Zendesk’s products and services, that the company has received all the vc backing that it has been receiving. Devutte and Charles River Ventures were the first ones to see this potential and later, Peter Fenton came on board together with his team of investors at Benchmark Capital, who also realized the potential of Zendesk’s products and services. Mikkel Svane further stated that the team at Zendesk is thrilled at the fact that the unique combination of SaaS, or Software as a Service, and the consumer technology experience that the team at Benchmark Capital has can be brought to the company and can create a dream team of Zendesk’s corporate executives and knowledgeable partners to build a powerful company.

According to Mr. Fenton, who is a partner at Benchmark Capital, the era that we live in today is enveloped in technology and information. People today cannot function without technology or computers and electronics. Furthermore, Mr. Fenton stated that two of Benchmark’s portfolio companies, Twitter and Engine Yard were both raving about Zendesk and how Zendesk’s products and services are used by these two companies for their help desk and customer support services. Right away, the team at Benchmark Capital saw an amazing opportunity in Zendesk.

Founded in 1995, Benchmark Capital is a leading vc firm that mainly invests in innovative entrepreneurs who want to build successful companies in the tech industry. Benchmark Capital has its partners work together with entrepreneurs as a team and has a team approach to venture investing. Currently, Benchmark Capital has over $2.8 billion in committed capital under its management and some other companies in its portfolio include Twitter, Atrica, Mazu Networks, BlueLane, Securify, CTERA Networks, Decru, Skybox, and others.

Charles River Ventures was founded in 1970 and is one of the oldest vc firms in the United States and is also one of the most successful vc firms that invests in early stage companies. Charles River Ventures currently has over $2.1 billion in venture capital under its management and is dedicated to find talented entrepreneurs and help them build their ideas into large successful companies. Some other companies in Charles River Ventures’s portfolio include Acopia, Virtusa, Flarion, Pirus, Basis, Flycast, and others.

For more information about Zendesk, click here.

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