Irish-founded software company Intercom has raised $250 million (€215 million) in debt financing to develop its AI customer service agent.
In a post on X, chief executive Eoghan McCabe promised “major” new customer agent releases this year, with the first coming next month.
“These agents will be sellers and advisers, teachers and experts,” he said. “They will achieve so much more than efficiency, they will allow what was heretofore impossible with humans: truly perfect customer experiences.”
The move is part of a strategy laid out by Intercom last year, in which it said it would turn its AI chatbot Fin into a leading customer agent.
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The company is facing competition in the sector, with McCabe noting Intercom’s “white hot” start-up competitors had raised hundreds of millions in the past few years. However, Intercom has established itself as a leading player in the market, with hundreds of millions of dollars in gross profit each year on its balance sheet. The latest financing will allow it to invest more significantly in developing its customer agent capabilities.
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“There’s bountiful equity ready to go for AI companies, and we raised $100 million last year for an employee tender offer,” McCabe said. “But if you ask me, diluting your shareholders for capital you can get at a mere fraction of the cost with debt is undisciplined. Access to debt is yet another advantage the late stage companies have that I expect we’ll see a lot more use as they pivot to AI.”
The debt financing is through a partnership with Hercules Capital.
Founded in Dublin in 2011 by McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciarán Lee and David Barrett, Intercom’s products enable companies to communicate easily with customers through their own websites and apps, on social media and by email. It introduced its first AI-based product in 2018.
