Kayako

Kayako is a customer service software company based in London, United Kingdom. Kayako builds customer service and help desk software which businesses use to talk to and support their customers. Kayako was founded in 2001 in Jalandhar, India and has since relocated its headquarters in London, United Kingdom.[1] In addition to its London location, the company has offices in Gurgaon, India, and Singapore.[2]

This article is about the software company. For the fictional character, see Kayako Saeki.

Kayako Ltd.
Type of businessPrivate
HeadquartersLondon
Founder(s)
  • Varun Shoor
  • Jamie Edwards
URLwww.kayako.com
Launched2001 (2001)

The company now serves 50,000 customers in over 100 countries,[3] including Peugeot, De Beers, NASA, and the American Motorcyclist Association.[4][5]

Kayako was cited as a direct competitor in Zendesk's (another help desk software company listed on the New York Stock Exchange) S-1 IPO filing with the Securities Exchange Commission.[6]

History

Kayako was established in 2001 by Varun Shoor,[7] who formed the company and its first office in his hometown of Jalandhar, India after dropping out of college.[8] Shoor learned to program when he was 13 years old, and started work on Kayako at the age of 17.[9]

Kayako is bootstrapped and has not taken any external investment, which is rare for a Software as a Service (SaaS) startup.[10] However, in 2014, Kayako was reported to be in talks with Helion Venture Partners to raise investment.[11]

Viber website compromise

In July 2013, Viber's online help desk, hosted by Kayako, was hacked and defaced by the Syrian Electronic Army.[12] Viber determined that the compromise was related to a compromise of an individual's account password, and not a security vulnerability in the Kayako application itself.[13]

ESW Capital acquisition

On 14 February 2018, Kayako announced that it had been acquired by ESW Capital, a private equity firm based in Austin, Texas that owns Trilogy (company)[14] to "further invest in creating a unified support experience centered around an integrated chat platform".

References
  1. Abrar, Peerzada (5 January 2015). "Mass exodus: Tech startups may shift overseas as young ventures face regulatory hurdles in India". The Economic times. The Economic times. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  2. Williams, Felicia (31 December 2016). "Kayako's CEO on building a bootstrapped business". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  3. Prasad, Anurag. "Hobbyist coder makes it big". Fortune India. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  4. Brandon, John (1 February 2012). "The new help desk: Agile, educational, efficient". Computer World. IDG. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  5. Sims, David. "Kayako Offers Free Software to Non-Profits". infoTECH. TMCnet. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  6. "FORM S-1 REGISTRATION STATEMENT, Zendesk, Inc". sec.gov. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  7. Ganguly, Payal. "Why entrepreneurs in India are bootstrapping their startups". The Economic Times. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  8. Williams, Felicia (31 December 2016). "Kayako's CEO on building a bootstrapped business". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  9. Mitra, Sramana (January 2014). "Bootstrapped Journey of a Child Entrepreneur in India: Varun Shoor, CEO of Kayako". One Million by One Million. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  10. Williams, Felicia (31 December 2016). "Kayako's CEO on building a bootstrapped business". TechCrunch. TechCrunch. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  11. Dutta, Diksha (10 February 2014). "Enterprise software firm Kayako in talks to raise funds from Helion, others". VC Circle. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  12. Goodin, Dan (23 July 2013). "Viber's online help desk sacked by pro-Syrian hackers". Arstechnica. Arstechnica. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  13. Burke, Elaine (24 July 2017). "Syrian Electronic Army hacks Viber following phishing attack". Silicon Republic. Silicon Republic. Retrieved 19 April 2017.
  14. "Kayako Acquired by ESW Capital". CNBC. Retrieved 15 March 2018.
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