Pipedrive vs Zendesk

2023. Pipedrive unveiled AI-powered sales assistant



Pipedrive, the user-friendly and efficient sales CRM designed for small businesses, has unveiled its new AI-driven Sales Assistant, currently in beta. This innovative tool offers sales professionals insights into a deal's likelihood of success and suggestions for optimal next steps, significantly enhancing the chances of closing deals successfully. Companies that leverage the Sales Assistant experience a threefold increase in deal closures compared to those who don't. By incorporating AI capabilities into the Sales Assistant, Pipedrive aims to empower sales teams with targeted and actionable guidance, enabling them to further elevate their performance. The integration of AI into the Sales Assistant equips small businesses with a virtual assistant that utilizes cutting-edge technology to help them prioritize tasks, focus on key deals, and identify potential challenges in their sales pipeline.


2022. Zendesk is acquired for $10.2B



Zendesk made a significant decision in February when it rejected a $17 billion acquisition offer, confident in its higher valuation. However, the circumstances have changed, and today the company has been acquired by a consortium of private equity firms for $10.2 billion, considerably lower than the initial proposal. The evolving landscape of the SaaS market in recent months has placed Zendesk amidst a whirlwind of investor drama. In a recent development, the company opted to remain independent, causing a sharp decline in its stock price.


2021. Zendesk acquires AI automation startup Cleverly to advance customer service



Zendesk has recently revealed its acquisition of Cleverly, an early-stage artificial intelligence startup. Cleverly offers an advanced product platform equipped with various AI-powered features. This includes a triage function that automatically assigns relevant tags to incoming service requests, facilitating efficient workflow categorization. Moreover, Cleverly provides AI-powered human augmentation through its agent assist capability, which assists customer service agents in delivering accurate responses to inquiries. Cleverly's technology seamlessly integrates with Zendesk and Salesforce, enabling enhanced customer support experiences for businesses leveraging these platforms.


2020. Sales CRM Pipedrive becomes unicorn



The latest European company to achieve unicorn status is Pipedrive, the sales CRM tool catering to small and medium-sized businesses. The company recently secured a majority investment from Vista Equity Partners, a U.S.-based private equity firm specializing in enterprise software. This investment has elevated Pipedrive's valuation to an impressive $1.5 billion. Pipedrive has always distinguished itself as sales software prioritizing the needs of salespeople, rather than just their managers. It was developed by sales professionals, for sales professionals. However, the platform has evolved into a comprehensive CRM solution that encompasses marketing functionalities as well. Pipedrive proudly boasts a user base of 95,000 companies relying on its software.


2020. Zendesk’s latest tools designed to give fuller view of the customer



Two years ago, Zendesk, a well-known provider of help desk software, expanded into CRM with its acquisition of Base. Shortly after, the company introduced the Sunshine platform, enabling customers to develop applications on top of the Zendesk platform. Since then, Zendesk has been actively integrating the CRM tool into its platform, and today's announcement focuses on offering Zendesk users a more comprehensive understanding of their customers. With access to extensive data from customer interactions with the help desk, Zendesk can provide valuable insights into customer preferences and behaviors.


2018. Zendesk launched customer service app builder



Zendesk has introduced Zendesk Sunshine, a new platform designed for developing customer-centric applications utilizing Zendesk's toolset. This platform enables companies to create custom apps, primarily focused on customer experience and relationship management, which are hosted on AWS and have access to a wide range of AWS services. All applications built on the Sunshine platform rely on it for seamless information sharing. The primary goal of this approach is to empower Zendesk customers to leverage the data they collect within Zendesk as a natural outcome of their workflow. While initially targeted towards Zendesk customers, independent developers may also have the opportunity to work on the platform in the future. Zendesk Sunshine aims to enhance customer service capabilities by providing a flexible and scalable platform for building tailored applications and harnessing valuable data within the Zendesk ecosystem.


2018. Zendesk launched enterprise content management platform



Zendesk has introduced Guide Enterprise, a new enterprise content management product specifically designed for large customer service organizations. This solution aims to provide these organizations with a knowledge base and a content management platform for effective editorial planning and review. The primary goal is to empower customer service representatives to document solutions to encountered problems, thus building a robust knowledge base as an integral part of their daily workflow. By accessing their colleagues' notes, representatives can avoid reinventing the wheel and contribute to the permanent knowledge base through editorial review. This way, when customers visit the website or app, they can access solutions to common issues without immediate human assistance. The platform also incorporates reminders to regularly review and update the content, ensuring the knowledge base remains up-to-date while eliminating outdated information.


2017. Pipedrive CRM gets $17M



Pipedrive, a CRM platform specifically developed to enhance sales for SMBs, has successfully secured $17 million in Series B funding. The newly acquired capital will be allocated towards product and technological advancements, expanding the partner ecosystem, and global marketing efforts. Pipedrive boasts a customer base of over 30,000 small businesses from 140+ countries, positioning itself as a formidable competitor against well-established players in the SMB CRM space. Originally recognized for its sales software catering primarily to salespeople rather than managers, Pipedrive has evolved into a comprehensive CRM platform. It has achieved this by integrating with over 50 online software solutions and consistently adding new integrations each month. These integrations encompass a range of business tools including Google Apps, Trello, Zapier, Mailchimp, Yesware, and Pandadoc.


2016. Zendesk expands beyond the help desk



Zendesk, a customer service app, has introduced a new product called Zendesk Explore, which offers comprehensive analytics for measuring and understanding the entire customer experience. With Zendesk Explore, you gain immediate access to valuable customer analytics, enabling a deeper understanding of both your customers and your business. This tool consolidates data from various sources, including Zendesk's range of tools and third-party systems such as Salesforce for customer data, Shopify for buying history, and Google Analytics for web analytics. By aggregating this information into a centralized location, Zendesk Explore provides a holistic view of the customer, surpassing the limitations of fragmented data trapped within application silos. This empowers users in any role to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their customers.


2016. Zendesk introduced Zendesk Message



The prominent customer support software, Zendesk, has introduced a new feature called "Message." This messaging product enables businesses to actively engage with customers on their preferred messaging platforms. Initially, Zendesk Message integrates with Facebook Messenger. With a user-friendly interface and a focus on messaging, Zendesk Message streamlines the process of handling customer interactions. Recognizing that messaging conversations often occur in brief bursts, we have designed the system to enable agents to swiftly transition from one conversation to another while maintaining the ease of assigning, taking ownership of, and resolving conversations. Additionally, agents will find it effortless to refer to significant events within lengthy conversation streams using features such as the timeline.