What Gladly does

Gladly Software, Inc. is a customer experience AI platform company founded in 2014 by Joseph Ansanelli, Michael Wolfe, and Dirk Kessler, and incorporated in Delaware with principal operations in Millbrae, California. The company sells a single unified customer service platform (marketed to support teams as Gladly Team) that centers every interaction on a lifelong, cross-channel Customer Profile rather than discrete support tickets. It targets premium consumer-facing brands, with a customer base skewed toward retail/commerce, travel, and publishing — including Crate & Barrel, Nordstrom, Ulta Beauty, TUMI, HOKA, UGG, Tory Burch, StockX, Bombas, Breeze Airways, and Condé Nast — and reports serving 200+ customers in the United States.

The platform's technical architecture is built around four AI-driven modules: Sidekick (an autonomous AI customer service agent derived from the July 2023 acquisition of generative AI firm Thankful), Voice AI / AI on Voice (conversational AI for phone support grounded in the unified profile), Insights Agent (plain-English analytics over service operations, in free preview), and Sales Assistant (personalized product recommendations). These sit atop no-code configuration tooling (Guides & Journeys) and an App Platform for partner-built extensions, with documented integrations into Salesforce, Zendesk, Shopify, Klaviyo, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Medallia, and others. The proprietary differentiator emphasized by the company is that its voice AI is the only one trained on lifelong, multichannel customer conversations, and the platform continuously learns from human-driven resolutions to expand autonomous resolution scope.

Gladly generates revenue primarily through enterprise SaaS subscriptions (partner referral fees are explicitly tied to first-year subscription revenue), supplemented by Professional Services for implementation and optimization. Go-to-market combines enterprise field sales (Request a demo flow), a three-tier Partner Program (Referral, Technology Alliance with Shopify/Twilio/Microsoft, Implementation/Agency), a self-serve product-led demo, and an event-driven motion anchored by the annual Gladly Connect Live conference and industry tradeshows (CCW Las Vegas, Shoptalk Spring). The company has raised approximately $208M in disclosed venture and private equity funding across rounds led by Greylock, NEA, GGV, Riverwood Capital, and AXA Venture Partners, with the most recent $40M round in September 2024 supporting the launch of the AI-powered unified platform.

Name

Gladly

Legal name

Gladly Software, Inc.

Website

https://gladly.ai

Company type

Private

Founded year

2014

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

101–250 employees

Short description

Gladly is a customer experience AI platform unifying voice, chat, email, and SMS around a lifelong customer profile for premium retail, travel, and publishing brands. Its AI agents autonomously resolve inquiries across channels. Founded in 2014, it operates as a private SaaS business.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Customer Experience Software

NAICS

Custom Computer Programming Services (541511)

akta.pro primary industry

Loyalty, Rewards & Retention Platforms (BPAFAFAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Airline Loyalty & Customer Engagement (FFP/CRM/CDP) (THALABAG), Travel Deal, Loyalty & Subscription Platforms (BPAMAIAM)

Keywords

• Customer service platform
• AI customer experience
• Unified customer profile
• Conversational support software
• Omnichannel contact center

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Subscription (SaaS): Primary revenue stream. Subscription-based access to the Gladly platform and AI capabilities, sold enterprise-wide to brand customers. Partner referral fees are explicitly tied to first-year subscription revenue, confirming a recurring subscription model.
2. Professional Services: Gladly offers Professional Services to help customers implement, configure, and optimize the platform. Implementation packages and on-demand technical support are also referenced in the help center.

Go-to-market motion5 records

Core offering

Gladly sells a customer experience AI platform that unifies voice, chat, email, SMS, social, and in-app conversations around a single lifelong Customer Profile. Its core products include the Gladly platform (marketed to support teams as Gladly Team), an autonomous AI customer service agent called Sidekick, Voice AI and AI on Voice for phone-based support, and the Insights Agent for AI analytics. The platform is sold to enterprise commerce, retail, airline, and consumer brands on a subscription basis.

Product overview

Gladly offers a single unified customer service platform — rather than a suite of disconnected products — that centers every interaction around a lifelong Customer Profile. The core Gladly platform (marketed to support teams as Gladly Team) brings together channels (Voice AI, Voice IVR, SMS, email, and chat) and pairs them with AI capabilities: Sidekick (an autonomous AI agent for self-service), Insights Agent (AI analytics), and the Sales Assistant for personalized shopping. Extensibility is delivered through the App Platform and Helpdesk Integration capability (connecting Salesforce and Zendesk), while Guides & Journeys orchestrates automated self-service flows. Together, these named products form a platform-plus-AI architecture where the unified Customer Profile acts as the data spine, AI capabilities layer on top to automate and assist, and the App Platform extends the system into the customer's existing tech stack.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sidekick: AI-powered customer service platform launched by Gladly in July 2023 following the acquisition of Thankful, providing scalable, personalized self-service experiences and enhancing human agent support.

Products and services

• Gladly Platform Core customer service platform that unifies voice, chat, email, SMS, social, and in-app conversations around a single lifelong Customer Profile, enabling seamless cross-channel support for enterprise brands. Sold as a subscription to enterprise commerce, retail, airline, and consumer brand support organizations.
• Sidekick AI customer service agent that autonomously resolves customer inquiries using generative AI, retrieval-augmented generation over the unified customer profile, and no-code automation. Launched following Gladly's acquisition of Thankful in July 2023.
• AI on Voice Voice AI capability that powers phone-based customer support with lifelong, multichannel customer conversation context, enabling AI-driven phone resolution and seamless handoff to human agents.
• Voice AI

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration20 records

AI capability12 records

Feature8 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Freshworks (Freshdesk): Freshworks provides Freshdesk, a customer service platform with Freddy AI for SMB and mid-market. It overlaps with Gladly in omnichannel support and AI assistance at a lower price point and broader international footprint.
• Zendesk: Zendesk is a global helpdesk and customer service platform incumbent. It competes head-on with Gladly in omnichannel ticketing and is layering AI agents (Zendesk AI), but its ticket-centric model contrasts with Gladly's customer-centric architecture.
• Genesys: Genesys is a large enterprise contact center / CCaaS platform with AI capabilities (Genesys Cloud AI). It overlaps with Gladly in voice, omnichannel routing, and AI assistance but is positioned as a broader suite for large contact centers.
• Salesforce Service Cloud: Salesforce Service Cloud is the dominant enterprise CRM-adjacent customer service suite with Einstein AI and Data Cloud. It competes for the same enterprise CX budget as Gladly and benefits from deep CRM bundling.

Direct peers

• Intercom: Intercom offers an AI-first customer service platform (Fin AI Agent) for SaaS and commerce customers. It directly competes with Gladly Sidekick and Voice AI for AI-driven support automation, with a similar enterprise go-to-market motion.
• Kustomer: Kustomer (now under Meta) provides a CRM and customer service platform centered on a unified customer timeline, closely mirroring Gladly's lifelong Customer Profile positioning. It targets similar enterprise commerce and DTC brands.
• Sprinklr: Sprinklr offers a unified customer experience platform with AI for service, social, and marketing, targeting enterprise brands. It competes with Gladly in omnichannel support and AI agents for commerce customers.

Emerging players

• Forethought: Forethought is an AI-native customer support automation platform offering Triage, Autocomplete, and Support AI. It is an emerging competitor to Gladly Sidekick in AI-driven deflection and agent assistance.
• Decagon: Decagon is an emerging AI agent platform for customer support, focused on conversational AI for enterprise brands. It represents a new generation of AI-native competitors challenging Gladly's AI-first positioning.
• Ada: Ada is an AI-powered customer service automation platform that deploys branded AI agents across channels. It is comparable to Gladly in targeting enterprise CX teams with no-code AI agent deployment.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/gladly
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/gladly-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles10 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds7 records

Investors11 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A1 record

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gladly