Alchemer announced an investment from KKR via KKR Ascendant, a new strategy within KKR’s Americas Private Equity platform that focuses on investing in middle market businesses. While financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, it is a majority investment which will enable Alchemer to accelerate its growth path with deeper technology investments, an increased focus on marketing and potential acquisition activity.

John Park, Head of Americas Software Private Equity at KKR, says, “Alchemer has built a differentiated, best-in-class platform that is helping companies form deeper and more meaningful relationships with their customers and other stakeholders. Demand for user experience solutions is growing as companies increasingly prioritize customer and employee engagement. We believe Alchemer has the right model and team to serve this growing need and look forward to supporting its continued innovation and growth.”

Dash Research projects that the market for customer insights and feedback enabling software will reach $7.97 billion by 2026, increasing from $5.85 billion in 2019, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.5%. “We are very excited to have KKR as an investor in Alchemer. We believe this transaction will benefit our customers and employees by accelerating our investment in experience management,” says David Roberts, CEO of Alchemer. “KKR shares our vision for the CX industry’s role in translating customer feedback into action, and having access to KKR’s expertise, capital, and resources will put Alchemer in an even better position to deliver on this critical mission.”

Alchemer was founded in 2006 and has more than 13,000 customers around the world including a number of Fortune 500 companies. Alchemer focuses on CX and voice of customer (VoC) software that can ingest, analyze, and then use customer and employee feedback to drive improved engagement, retention, and user experience. During a post-announcement conversation Dash Research had with the Alchemer team, Roberts shared Alchemer’s larger vision to move beyond just the “feel good” part of gathering feedback to really improve the entire customer engagement and show real business impact and return on CX workflows.

According to Roberts, “KKR was looking for mid-market companies with best-in-class technologies, services, and employees, targeting exciting markets such as CX. Alchemer fits that bill. The KKR investment will provide the fuel for some exciting product enhancements and introductions focusing on workflow, integrations, and enterprise administrations.” Roberts also mentioned the company could be looking at broadening product capabilities and expanding geographies through strategic acquisitions.

Alchemer will implement KKR’s broad-based employee ownership program, which will make all Alchemer employees owners of the company alongside KKR. There will be no changes to the Alchemer brand or leadership.