LogMeIn is getting into the artificial intelligence space with an acquisition that will expand the Boston company's self-service capabilities for customer support.
The company announced on Tuesday it has acquired Nanorep, an Israeli startup that makes self-service chatbot and virtual assistant software. LogMeIn is paying $45 million for Nanorep and up to an additional $5 million depending on the achievement of certain milestones and retention targets in the two years after the deal closes.
Founded in 2009, Nanorep had raised a total of $11.5 million in funding. Investors included JAL Ventures, Oryzn Capital and Titanium Investments.
"Artificial intelligence is changing the way we interact with our favorite brands and will play a critical role in the future of customer engagement."
LogMeIn's latest acquisition falls in line with the company's plan to become a major player in the customer support space. After merging with Citrix's GoTo business earlier this year, the company announced a new customer relationship management product in June called Bold360 that will lean heavily into automation as a way to help companies better serve customers. The CRM market is a crowded one, with the company potentially having to contend with incumbents like Salesforce and Pegasystems. While the company said Bold360 is not meant to replace existing systems and instead augment and complement them, the company would clearly like to become the dominant tool on the market.
With the acquisition, Nanorep will be offered as a standalone product, as well as a new self-service capability within Bold360. The company said Nanorep will also play a major role in expanding LogMeIn customer engagement products.
"Artificial intelligence is changing the way we interact with our favorite brands and will play a critical role in the future of customer engagement," Bill Wagner, LogMeIn's CEO, said in a statement. "With Nanorep, we gain proven technology and AI expertise that expands our Bold360 offering, accelerates our customer engagement vision and provides a natural path for us to leverage these emerging technologies across our entire portfolio."
Mergers and acquisition have been an important part of LogMeIn’s long-term strategy, and the company has used those deals to build new products and get to the market faster.
“In the markets in which we compete, time is our enemy, and we need to move and be aggressive as possible and move quickly,” Wagner told BostInno in a previous interview.
Correction: A previous version of this article contained the incorrect amount of funding Nanorep had raised, which was based on a figure from Crunchbase.
