At Salesforce Announce Plans to acquire Airkit.aia low-code platform that helps e-commerce companies build AI-powered customer service agents.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Airkit was founded in Redwood City, California, in 2017, by Adam Evans and Steven Ehikian, who sold a previous big data startup called RelateIQ to Salesforce for $390 million in 2014.
in it Original appearanceAirkit was a self-service customer engagement platform that allowed companies to consolidate data silos and assist with use cases such as onboarding new users. But the company last month It was relaunched as Airkit.ai It launched its first integrated product out of the box, a GPT-4-based platform that allows companies like OpenTable and ShipBob to build specialized customer service chatbots that can handle inquiries about order status, refunds, product information, and more.
![Antenna kit](https://techcrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/AirkitGIF.gif)
Antenna kit. Image credits: Antenna kit
Airkit.ai’s connection with Salesforce doesn’t stop at the founders’ previous startup. The duo launched their new company in 2020 with $28 million in funding from investors including Accel and Salesforce Ventures, which also invested in follow-on rounds, bringing Airkit.ai’s total funding to $68 million in its six-year history.
Then last year, Airkit Also landed on Salesforce’s enterprise cloud marketplace, AppExchange.
The hype generated by ChatGPT and the broader generative AI movement is palpable, as investors flock to back the next big thing. Therefore, an AI startup with such strong relationships with Salesforce will always be an attractive proposition, especially considering that Salesforce recently pledged to invest $500 million in AI startups.
Upon completion of the deal, expected by January 2024, Salesforce says Airkit.ai will be integrated into its customer service platform Service Cloud, with Evans continuing to lead the business.