Aircall raises $120 million at unicorn valuation

Cloud-based phone system and call centre platform Aircall has raised $120 million and now sits at a valuation of over $1 billion. With the past 15 months transforming just about every aspect of our working lives, it would appear as though Aircall has come out on top of the voice call race, offering deep integrations and a seemingly easy-to-use solution. To date, the firm has raised over $226 million in funding.

Founded in 2014 within eFounders, Aircall was built on a simple premise: traditional business phone systems are hard to manage, siloed, and require a lot of heavy lifting to get up and running, i.e. time, and money.

While no one could have predicted the roller coaster right we’ve all been on for what seems like forever, in a world where we all had to step out of the office for a minute, Aircall has risen to the challenge and met customer’s demands. With deep integrations with Salesforce, Hubspot, Zendesk, Slack, Intercom and many others, Aircall has allowed businesses to go from a call centre to a call de-centralised.

But don’t just take my word for it, Aircall has achieved a 65% total customer growth over the past year alone, now counting some 8,500 customers worldwide, and a third of its revenue coming from the US. The firm counts over 450 employees in offices in Paris, Madrid, New York, and Sydney.

“Since the beginning of Aircall, we’ve helped thousands of companies to enrich their customer experience through voice channels, with more empathy than ever in the past year. We also witnessed an increasing demand for visibility and data about teams and performances,“ comments Aircall co-founder and CEO Olivier Pailhes. “Now that hybrid, on-site or remote teams are likely here to stay, we’ll continue to work to achieve our vision and empower every professional to have richer conversations.”

The $120 million funding round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, with a large number of previous investors including DTCP, eFounders, Draper Esprit, Adams Street Partners, NextWorld Capital, and Gaia Capital Partners all participating.

"Aircall is well placed to take full advantage of the huge structural shifts that are taking place. Not just in the way we work, with remote working and digital transformation resolutely here to stay, but in the way we interact with businesses," commented Draper Esprit's Stuart Chapman. "Customers demand a better and more personalised interaction with a business and Aircall is in a position to help companies achieve that.

"Aircall surges today as a brilliant story. Nothing was easy in the beginning and the tenacity, courage, and perseverance of our cofounders Olivier, Jonathan, PB & Xav have made the result. It’s only day 1 for them and for Aircall," concludes eFounders' Quentin Nickmans.