Ping Identity to Be Acquired by Thoma Bravo for $2.8 Billion

Ping Identity, the Denver, Colorado-based provider of intelligent identity solutions for the enterprise, has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by prominent private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The all-cash transaction values Ping Identity at $2.8 billion, with shareholders to receive $28.50 per share under the agreement. The offer represents a premium of approximately 63% over Ping Identity’s closing share price on August 2, 2022, the last full trading day prior to the announcement of the transaction, and a premium of 52% over the volume weighted average price of Ping Identity stock for the 60 days ending August 2, 2022.

Related Article: Medallia to be Acquired by Investment Firm Thoma Bravo

Andre Durand, CEO at Ping Identity, says the essential nature of identity security in today’s digital-first economy allows Ping Identity to capitalize on growing demand from modern enterprises for robust security solutions. Seth Boro, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, believes that Ping Identity has unique capabilities and a strong position in enterprise identity security that enable its platform to deliver customer outcomes, expand into new use cases, and support digital transformations.

The acquisition represents a deepening bet by Thoma Bravo on cybersecurity, an area of interest for the investment and growth capital firm, with the acquisition enabling Ping Identity to accelerate its cloud transformation and deliver identity security experiences for customers, employees, and partners of large enterprises worldwide.

CX Platform Gorgias Gets $30 Million in New Funding

Gorgias, the provider of a multichannel helpdesk integrated with e-commerce merchants to help businesses manage customer queries and complaints, raised $30 million in Series C funding at a valuation of $710 million, increasing its total funding to date to $72 million. The new round was led by Texas-based Transpose Platform and Canada’s Shopify, with participation coming from previous investors Jason Lemkin of SaaStr in San Francisco, Rajeev Dham of Sapphire Ventures in Austin, Texas, Charles River Ventures (CRV) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Alven Capital in Paris, France.

Founded in 2015 and headquartered in San Franciso, Gorgias is used today to improve the CX of more than 10,000 online stores that sell their products on Shopify, BigCommerce, and Magento. Gorgias will use the new funding to accelerate development of its automation add-on feature, which can deflect up to a third of incoming repetitive support tickets by providing customers with instant answers. Another new feature soon to be available, revenue add-on, will identify customers that could generate further revenue through online customer services.

While many merchants worry that introducing automation might remove the human element of the support process, Gorgias CEO and co-founder Romain Lapeyre explains that the company aims to streamline the process of dealing with repetitive tickets so that agent attention could be reserved for conversations that require human empathy. Gorgias also offers insights on how to achieve success with a direct-to-consumer (DTC) growth playbook that Lapeyre estimates can result in 44% more revenue for e-commerce customers.

Flip Raises $60 Million in Series B Round

Flip, the Los Angeles-based social commerce startup that mixes live commerce mobile apps with real customer reviews to improve the buying experience and opportunity for the creator economy, recently closed a $60 million Series B funding round at a valuation of $500 million.

The funding round was led by San Francisco investment firm WestCap, with participation from previous investors Mubadala Capital and Streamlined Ventures, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $95 million. Flip will use the fresh capital infusion to expand teams, deepen brand partnerships, and launch its own third-party social commerce marketplace this summer.

Flip built an online shopping experience that organically combines social discovery and e-commerce. Shoppers visit Flip as a single destination to discover and learn about products through 60-second videos of user-generated content that are also instantly shoppable, accompanied by a one-click checkout and same-day shipping. Shoppers can then turn into creators by sharing their own video reviews, with the chance to monetize their reviews as other users in the community engage and shop through their content.

Swedish Tech Firm Netigate Obtains Strategic Investment from GRO Capital

Netigate, the provider of a cloud-based experience management solution for customer and employee feedback, is receiving a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount from GRO Capital to accelerate growth and expansion.

Established with a vision to provide a platform for unfiltered, rich feedback aimed at delivering an accurate understanding of customers and employees, Netigate offers cloud-based services for online surveys mainly used for the voice of the customer (VoC), employee performance, and market research.

For GRO Capital, the Copenhagen, Denmark-based private equity fund that is now Netigate’s majority shareholder, its investment will help speed up product innovation at Netigate, enhance sales and marketing efforts at the company, aid in Netigate’s international expansion, and continue support of Netigate’s strong position in Europe.

Mikkel Drucker, CEO at Netigate, says the company is on its way to becoming Europe’s leading midmarket experience platform. Given the increasing competition in the market for both talent and customers, Drucker says capturing and taking action on feedback across the entire employee and customer journey is essential for companies to remain competitive and to survive.

Medallia Closes Acquisition of Mindful

Global CX and employee experience (EX) solutions specialist Medallia has closed its acquisition of Mindful, the Akron, Ohio-based provider of contact center callback technology. Formerly known as VHT, Mindful automates intelligent callbacks so that contact centers can use staff more efficiently, shift call volumes to the most efficient times, and route calls to the most effective queues, saving time for both customers and agents. On an annual basis, Mindful estimates that it eliminates more than 4 billion minutes of hold time for customers around the world.

Related Article: Medallia to Purchase Callback Technology Provider Mindful

With the acquisition now complete, combining Medallia’s capabilities in orchestrating customer journeys together with Mindful’s competences in omnichannel call scheduling and seamless channel transitions will help support the wise use of time for teams, with only the highest-value customers automatically identified and transferred to the contact center.

For Medallia and Mindful, which have worked closely since 2021, uniting their capabilities enables smoother and more modified personalized experiences to be created for brands across channels. A seamless callback experience increases the quality of customer interactions, both companies say, removing lengthy wait times from the customer journey, reducing friction for customers, and improving the EX for contact center agents, who then connect with happier customers. In this way, Medallia and Mindful can help enterprises focus on the proper way to talk to the appropriate customers at the most suitable time, says Medallia CEO Leslie Stretch.