Zendesk acquires Smooch, LinkedIn updates Sales Navigator, more news

Zendesk acquired Smooch Technologies Holdings ULC. The Montreal-based company runs Smooch, a platform that is designed to support personalized customer experiences. The acquisition will help Zendesk deliver omnichannel experiences on any messaging channel. According to company officials, Smooch provides a WhatsApp Business integration. This will allow Zendesk users to manage service interactions and engage with customers directly through Zendesk Chat. Zendesk has an integration with the WhatsApp Business API in the Zendesk Suite. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

In other customer experience software news ....

Freshworks Acquires Natero

Freshworks, which provides customer engagement software, acquired Natero, a customer success management software company. Company officials said the acquisition gives Freshworks a SaaS platform that now unifies marketing, sales, support and customer success. Natero's artificial intelligence/machine learning tech is designed to help Freshworks users obtain actionable data. Natero's customer success solution combines predictive analytics, customer intelligence and workflow management. 

People.ai Nets $60 Million

People.ai, which offers a revenue intelligence system, announced a $60 million Series C funding round led by ICONIQ Capital with participation by Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed Venture Partners, GGV Capital and Y Combinator. Will Griffith, partner at ICONIQ Capital, will join the People.ai board of directors.

The company also announced its newest product, “The Wire,” a real-time feed of best next actions that includes AI-driven intelligence, task prioritization and one-click execution.

PX Offers Sales Data Integration with Marketing

PX, a marketing technology platform that automates and manages customer acquisition, has given customers the ability to integrate their internal sales data into the PX marketing platform. The integration of sales data combines a customer’s pre-existing outcome data with PX’s source management, lead-scoring and lead-tracking data. 

mParticle Receives Security Compliance

mParticle, a customer data platform, announced it is ISO/IEC 27001:2013 compliant. It also received its SOC 2 Type II audit report. mParticle officials noted ISO/IEC 27001:2013 is an Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It requires risk identification, the development of technical security controls to handle those threats and a continual review of these respective controls’ effectiveness.

LinkedIn Updates UI for Sales Navigator

LinkedIn debuted a newly redesigned homepage for Sales Navigator centered around its Alerts feature. This, company officials said, is designed to help teams identify company changes, find relevant prospects and prioritize the best next steps to take. LinkedIn also updated messaging, lists, search and CRM integration.

Alorica Taps New CMO

Alorica, a provider of customer experience solutions, named Colson Hillier to its executive leadership team as CMO. Prior to joining Alorica, Hillier held numerous senior leadership roles at Verizon Wireless. There, he focused on product development, big data analytics and digital marketing. He holds an MBA from the College of William and Mary and a Bachelor of Science degree in business from the University of Richmond.