BirdEye swoops in on $60 million Series C led by Accel-KKR to help grow local businesses
Daniel Levi
Posted On March 10, 2022
BirdEye, a California-based tech startup focused on helping local businesses improve their business reputations and customer experiences in real-time, has raised $60 million Series C led by Accel-KKR. BirdEye was bootstrapped until 2016 when it raised $8 million in Series A funding.
Birdeye said that it will use the new capital infusion to accelerate its development of a full suite that provides local businesses with everything they need to win by uncovering the potential of digital transformation.
Today, BirdEye is used by over 80,000 local businesses to collect reviews, convert leads, run surveys, and get referrals. BirdEye clients include businesses in industries ranging from healthcare, retail, hospitality, and automotive, among others.
The startup will also use the funding to grow its reach by expanding into Australia and the United Kingdom. This expansion will provide local businesses globally with everything they may need such as collecting payments, automating reviews or referrals, managing communications, and delivering extraordinary customer experiences that attract new customers and drive revenue.
Founded in 2012 by CEO Naveen and his brother Neeraj Gupta, The Palo Alto-based Birdeye helps businesses manage the complete customer lifecycle, from acquisition to retention across multiple digital channels. Prior to founding Birdeye, Naveen was formerly chief product officer at the telephony software company Ring Central, and Neeraj was a longtime technical lead at Yahoo.
“We all expect the convenience of a digital-first experience, and that has accelerated during the pandemic. Still, local businesses have been unable to transition to digital,” said Naveen Gupta, CEO of Birdeye and EY Entrepreneur of the Year. “We want to help local businesses join the digital revolution without the hassle of complicated and costly software. We want to allow local businesses to compete and win with larger organizations. With this investment from Accel-KKR, we will make this a global movement.”
Birdeye helps over 80,000 local businesses manage customer experience and interactions in today’s digital-first world so that businesses can focus on what matters the most: their customers. With Birdeye, dentists can request patient reviews automatically.
Realtors can answer questions from showings at any time. Movers can request referrals from satisfied customers, and body shops can request payment by text. Gone are the days of disjointed and hard-to-manage point solutions. With Birdeye, online presence, reviews, referrals, messaging, web chat, surveys, digital payments, and AI-powered insights are all accessible under a cohesive, easy to use, all-in-one platform.
Joe Porten, Managing Director of Accel-KKR said, “Birdeye has successfully identified the high value of customer experiences and is delivering a powerful facilitating element for local businesses. We see incredible opportunity within this rapidly evolving space as the importance of peer validation grows in relation to expanded user communities on social networks and other digital channels.”
This funding will not only support local businesses by improving the easy-to-use technology that Birdeye is known for, it will also grow Birdeye’s reach by expanding into Australia and the United Kingdom. This expansion will provide local businesses globally with everything they may need such as collecting payments, automating reviews or referrals, managing comm
Led by alumni from Google, Amazon, Salesforce, and Yahoo, Birdeye is backed by Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Trinity Ventures, and World Innovation Lab. The company has been the highest-rated Experience Marketing platform over the last 5 years on G2.
