Recent history
In 2017, Zendesk added an AI bot that has conversations with customers and attempts to direct the customer to the answer they're looking for.[31] The bot initially had limited functionality, but was expanded in 2019.[31] In 2018, the company introduced Zendesk Suite, which combines social media, live-chat, email, and other communications into a single ticket system.[32] An enterprise version of the software-as-a-service product was released in 2018.[24] By that time, 40 percent of Zendesk's revenue was coming from larger companies.[24] In 2019, Zendesk first released its "Sunshine" tool, which is focused on direct-messaging customers on social media sites.[33]
Zendesk eventually expanded from just customer service to also managing other customer interactions, such as sales.[34] The company first moved into sales software with its September 2018 acquisition of competitor Base.[35][34] Base was later renamed Sell and a Sell Marketplace was created for corresponding third-party apps.[35] Part of the social media software acquired from Smooch was rebranded as Sunshine Conversations, a tool that competes with Salesforce.com.[36] Zendesk's sales automation software was later revamped with Zendesk Sell in 2020, which improved integration with Zendesk's customer support software.[36] Since then, Zendesk marketplace has integrated several third parties technologies to provide more services to the end customers. In 2021 for example, several companies joined Zendesk marketplace, such as Crowlingo for multilingual data collection, Verse for lead conversion and ViiBE for remote visual support.[37]
By 2018, Zendesk had annual revenues of $500 million.[38][31]
In July 2019, cybersecurity researcher Sam Jadali exposed a catastrophic data leak known as DataSpii.[39][40] The leak was facilitated by the marketing intelligence company Nacho Analytics (NA). Branding itself as the "God mode for the internet," NA granted its members the ability to access URLs for support-ticket file attachments from Zendesk customers, including Venmo.[41][42] Importantly, due to Zendesk's default privacy settings, support-ticket file attachment URLs are publicly accessible unless customers adjust these settings for enhanced privacy.[43] The DataSpii report revealed that third parties systematically accessed URLs almost immediately after their collection, posing a threat to the confidentiality of the sensitive information contained within them.[44][45]
In October 2019, Zendesk disclosed that it was hacked in 2016, resulting in a potential leak of information about customer service agents using Zendesk.[46]
In May 2019, Zendesk acquired Montreal-based Smooch, for an undisclosed amount. Smooch provided messaging services on websites for live-chat customer support.[31] In 2020, Zendesk announced more tools for messaging customers on social media and enhancements to its customer relationship management features.[47][48]
In October 2021, Zendesk announced that it was acquiring Momentive Global Inc., formerly SurveyMonkey, for $4.13 billion.[49] Zendesk's investors rejected the deal on February 25, 2022, and terminated the agreement due to risk.[50]
In June 2022, it was announced that Zendesk would be acquired by a consortium of private-equity firms led by Permira and Hellman & Friedman in an all-cash deal worth $10.2 billion.[51] Thereafter due to the pending acquisition by these firms Zendesk neither provided shareholder's letter nor held a conference call or webcast to disclose the financial results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2022.[52]
In September 2022, with the closure of 3rd quarter the financial results were out with a substantial increase in revenue by 20% over the year to $416.9 million and GAAP operating loss of $55.4 million with non-GAAP operating income of $48.9 million. In addition to this due to the impending transaction, Zendesk suspended its financial guidance for the fiscal year ending December 30, 2022.[52]
In November 2022, it was announced that the investor group had completed the acquisition of Zendesk for approximately $10.2 billion.[53]
In June 2023, Zendesk acquired Tymeshift for an undisclosed price.[54]
In February 2025, Zendesk acquired Australian company Local Measure for $100 million.[55][56] In July 2025, Zendesk acquired HyperArc, an AI analytics platform.[57] In December 2025, Zendesk acquired Unleash, an enterprise search platform that connects knowledge across internal systems for AI-driven employee service tools.[58]
In March 2026, Zendesk announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Forethought, an AI customer experience company focused on automating customer service interactions.[59] Forethought's technology uses AI agents to automate support workflows such as ticket triage and responses, and by 2025 it supported more than one billion customer interactions per month.[60] Zendesk said it planned to integrate Forethought's technology into its platform to expand AI-driven customer service automation.[59]
