Talkdesk scores $15M to create more light-as-a-cloud call centers

It may seem like technology from another century, but voice-over-phone is still a highly popular way for customers to communicate with brands.

Today, San Francisco-based Talkdesk is announcing it has raised a series A round of $15 million so it can do its part helping small and mid-size businesses turn their call centers into cloud-based customer centers.

The company says its solution — integrated with customer relationship management and customer service systems, as well as other business tools — can be set up in minutes.

It doesn’t require hardware, coding, downloads, or even phones. The only requirements for this web-based system are computers and fast Internet connections.

A customer is routed to the most appropriate agent, who sees chat, phone, email, ticket, and case histories — even the customer’s photo when available.

Post-call, info is automatically entered into the user’s profile. For missed calls, recorded messages from customers and related info are automatically forwarded to the agent.

Although the voiceover is annoying, here’s a quick overview of what the company does:

As an example, the company noted that consumer robotics company Anki integrates Talkdesk with customer service platform Zendesk to boost personalization for any incoming customer calls.

Talkdesk, founded in 2011, launched its platform in the spring of 2012. It has had booming growth, ballooning from seven to 70 employees in less than a year while showing a 10-fold revenue growth year-over-year. Customers include Edmunds.com, Homejoy, and Weather.com.

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Although it is not the only company integrating and modernizing the call center — competitors include Five9, inContact, 8×8, and RingCentral — Talkdesk says it is simpler than other cloud-based solutions to set up, with a one-click integration for Salesforce, Desk.com, Zendesk, and other customer platforms. As a cloud-based system, clients pay as they go.

Prior to this round, the company had raised $3.6 million. The new money, led by DFJ with participation from existing investor Storm Ventures, will be used to expand the product, design, and engineering teams and to boost marketing and customer support efforts.