Talkdesk's Big Funding Round Helps Take On Five9, 8x8, Nice InContact, More

Talkdesk just got $143 million in new Series C funding, raising its total valuation to more than $3 billion.

The new funding is from a combination of new and existing investors. New ones include Franklin Templeton, Willoughby Capital, Skip Capital, Lead Edge Capital and Top Tier Capital Partners.

The CCaaS provider has raised $268 million through funding rounds.

Jon Heaps is Talkdesk‘s vice president of channels. He said new Series C funding allows Talkdesk to invest even further into research and development.

Talkdesk’s Jon Heaps

“Talkdesk is leading the contact center industry through a rapid pace of innovation [with] more than 600 product innovations in the past 12 months,” he said. “[That includes] Talkdesk 20-in-20, an ambitious release program … starting 2020 with 20 product introductions in the first 20 weeks. And our culture of innovation led to 200 patent submissions in 100 days. Also, Talkdesk set a new standard for reliability with the 100% uptime service level agreement.”

Talkdesk will increase its focus on R&D to continually “raise the bar for the industry,” Heaps said. That’s by offering customers and partners the “absolute best” in contact center offerings for the enterprise.

Competitive Advantage

Among Talkdesk’s competitors are Nice InContact, Five9, Genesys, 8×8 and Serenova.

“This new funding will allow Talkdesk to extend its competitive advantage through innovation by an increased focus on research and development, and expanding its reach into the Fortune 500,” Heaps said. “Additionally, the funding will power an expansion of go-to-market strategies with investment in sales, marketing, and channel organizations and programs to continued global expansion.”

Talkdesk partners play an “extremely important role as additional eyes and ears in the marketplace,” he said. And they serve as a conduit between customers and the company, he said.

“In the same way we regularly consult with our customers, listening to their needs and wish lists, we are consistently in touch with our partners and gathering their input,” he said.

“We have been incredibly impressed by Talkdesk, and the remarkable growth and scale the company has achieved over the last few years,” said Morgan Rutman, Willoughby Capital’s president. “The company’s solutions are mission-critical across a range of industries during these challenging times. We are excited to support [CEO] Tiago [Paiva] and the team through the next stage of the company’s evolution.”