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Follow on Google News | Freshdesk Takes Customer Support Social, Raises $1 Million FundingOne Million by One Million, a global entrepreneurship education program, announces that global venture capital firm Accel Partners are investing $1 million in Freshdesk, a social customer support startup offering a SaaS solution to small businesses.
By: One Million by One Million (1M/1M) Founded in 2010 by Girish Mathrubootham and Shanmugam Krishnasamy, formerly of ZOHO Corporation, Freshdesk aims to bridge a gap in the customer support software market where there were no quality options that were affordable for small companies. The Series A Funding comes just as Freshdesk released a host of new features, including Facebook and Twitter integration. This enables businesses to take complete control of their customer service over social media. Freshdesk has customers in over 30 countries and is available in 6 languages. This year, Freshdesk also received widespread attention by winning the Microsoft BizSpark India Startup Challenge, competing against 400 other startups. Sramana Mitra, Founder of One Million by One Million, says, “Earlier this year, I wrote a piece called Top 10 Social Web Trends For The Decade. In it, I suggested that the way various business functions are done will change owing to the impact of the social Web. The areas that are seeing the most upheaval are customer services, which spans customer support, technical support, and related services. Freshdesk is bringing social CRM to the small business market, and we look forward to working with them in addressing this extremely promising business opportunity.” “1M/1M is a very helpful program, and Sramana Mitra is well connected in the industry,” shares Girish Mathrubootham, Founder & CEO at Freshdesk. “When we were looking to talk to investors, Sramana introduced us to multiple investors and acted as an advisor. 1M/1M also helped us to win the $40,000 Microsoft BizSpark Startup Challenge Grant by helping us to refine our pitch, market sizing analysis, and other details. I would enthusiastically recommend Sramana's 1M/1M program for first time entrepreneurs and technical founders who need help with understanding other aspects of running a business.” Explaining Freshdesk, Girish Mathrubootham says, “More and more, customers are turning to social networks like Twitter or Facebook for support. The reasons are many. The traditional support channels like email or phone are slow and frustrating for customers. When a customer complains online on Twitter or Facebook, they see that usually they can reach someone higher up in the organization who is more knowledgeable and willing to help, and their problem is resolved faster as there is pressure on the company to manage its public image. While this may work in the short term, a better long-term strategy for the company is to ensure that people who are responsible for customer support can see customer feedback on social networks so that they can resolve those issues just as they do through normal channels like email and telephone.” “Freshdesk has a stunning look and feel and requires no training to get agents up and running,” says Freshdesk customer Richard Jaques of Cotsworld Web Services. “It is an absolute pleasure to use and has been designed with the customer in mind. There is nothing on the market to match it.” About One Million by One Million (1M/1M): One Million by One Million (1M/1M) is a global initiative to nurture a million entrepreneurs to each reach a million dollars in annual revenue and beyond, through education, incubation, strategy consulting, coaching, mentoring, business development, media outreach, and access to capital. Find more information here: http://1m1m.sramanamitra.com/ About Freshdesk: Freshdesk is an on-demand social customer service platform that enables small and medium sized businesses to roll out a professional and modern customer support system. The pricing plans start from $9 per agent per month. Freshdesk’s features include multi product support, knowledge base, self service portal, community forums and tools to leverage mainstream social media for customer support. Find more information at http://freshdesk.com About Accel Partners Accel Partners is a global venture capital firm with offices located in Silicon Valley, New York, London, China, and India. Founded in 1983, Accel today invests globally using dedicated teams and market-specific strategies for local geographies. With over $6 billion under management, Accel has helped entrepreneurs build over 300 category-defining companies including: Actuate, Alfresco, AdMob, AMCC, Arrowpoint, Baidu, BBN, Brightcove, ComScore, Etsy, Facebook, Focus Media, Foundry Networks, Gameforge, GlamMedia, Imperva, Infinera, Interwoven, JBoss, Kayak, Knewton, Macromedia, metroPCS, Mu Sigma, Polycom/PictureTel, Portal Software, QlikTech, Real Networks, Redback Networks, Riverbed, Sohu.com, UUNet, Veritas, Walmart.com, Webroot, XenSource, and Zimbra. Find more information at http://accel.com For More Information Contact: One Million by One Million Maureen Kelly (908) 953-0602 maureen@sramanamitra.com Freshdesk Inc. Andrews Moses 1-877-485-0317 andrew@freshdesk.com End
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