Livechat Software

LiveChat Software
Public
Traded as WSE: LVC
ISIN PLLVTSF00010
Industry Software
Founded Wrocław, Poland 2002 (2002)
Headquarters Wrocław, Poland
Number of locations
 2 offices (2011)
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
  • Mariusz Cieply (CEO)
  • Urszula Jarzebowska (CFO)
  • Szymon Klimczak (CMO)
  • Bartosz Olchowka (CTO)
  • Piotr Bednarek (CCO)
  • Maciej Malesa (CIO)[1]
Products LiveChat
Services
Revenue
  • Increase US$13.4 million (2015)[2]
  • US$9 million (2014)[3]
Profit
  • Increase US$7.10 million (2015)[2]
  • US$5.06 million (2014)[3]
Number of employees
 65
Subsidiaries
  • LiveChat, Inc.
Website investor.livechatinc.com

LiveChat Software (WSE:LVC)[4] is a customer service software company and developer of LiveChat - software as a service-based help desk software and online chat software for ecommerce sales, customer support and lead generation.

The company has offices in Wrocław, Poland and Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It serves more than 16,000 paid customers in over 140 countries,[5][6][7] including Adobe, AirAsia, Better Business Bureau, ING, Linens 'n Things and Orange.[8][9][10]

History

Founded in 2002 as Livechat Sp. z o.o. (LLC) in Wrocław, Poland, since October 2007 runs as a stock company.

In October 2006 50% of company stock was bought by Capital Partners S.A., investment and consultancy firm publicly listed at Warsaw Stock Exchange. In February 2008 Capital Partners S.A. decided to follow its strategy of having fewer companies but larger individual transactions and sold its entire stake[11] along with another 13% of company stock to another publicly listed company, Gadu-Gadu S.A..[12] This way LiveChat Software became another Polish company in Naspers capital group, joining Gadu-Gadu and Allegro.pl.[13]

In January 2011 the management team looking to get back a controlling equity stake in the company started the management buyout process. After Naspers agreed in June 2011 to sell its entire stake, the founders teamed up with private equity firm Tar Heel Capital to finalize the buyout of the 60% stake. After transaction was completed in September 2011, the founders own 60% of the stake, while Tar Heel Capital owns 40% of the company.[8][9]

LiveChat Software has been introduced to the Warsaw Stock Exchange in April 2014 with the symbol LVC.[14]

Products

LiveChat is currently the only product offered by the company. It is a live support software and help desk software used by companies to provide real-time communication with customers using different communication channels: online chat on the website and inside mobile applications, email and social media (such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter).

LiveChat Software owns the technology it uses in the product, however in areas unrelated directly to chat, the company relies on 3rd party services. Technology partners include: Elastic for search and analytics engine,[15] Postmark for delivery of transactional emails,[16] Recurly for subscription billing[17] and Pingdom for performance monitoring and uptime tracking.[18]

On the software market, company cooperates with such companies as Microsoft, MySQL AB,[19] Intel or Red Hat.[20]

Products offered in the past, but currently discontinued are: GG Pro, which was a corporate instant messenger) and Chat Server, which was a chat software for moderated chat rooms. Besides developing and selling communication solutions, in 2004-2010 LiveChat Software was also the owner of one of the first Polish online chat portals - POLChat.

Awards

In October 2007 LiveChat (formerly LIVECHAT Contact Center) was listed among top Customer Support and Feedback applications in Inside CRM report[21] recommended by Guy Kawasaki.[22]

In 2011 Deloitte listed LiveChat Software as one of the fastest growing Central European technology companies in Deloitte Technology Fast 50 program - the company was selected for the 2011 award based on its 545% revenue growth over the previous five years (2005–2010).[23] In 2012 the company was listed 18th in the same ranking, based on its 830% revenue growth.[24]

In 2013 the company has been listed by Red Herring in the group of the most innovative companies from across Europe.[25] It has also been recognized by Deloitte in its annual Technology Fast 50 program and listed 18th with 624% revenue growth.[26]

In 2015, during the Private Equity Forum & Awards Gala organized by the Executive Club with the support of Polish Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, LiveChat Software has been awarded “Private Equity Diamonds in the category Portfolio company (small cap).[27] Later that year, LiveChat Software was shortlisted for the European Small and Mid-Cap Awards organised by EuropeanIssuers, FESE and the European Commission. One of three companies entered for the awards by Warsaw Stock Exchange, LiveChat was among the only CEE companies to be shortlisted.[28][29]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Key People at LiveChat Software". WSJ.COM. 2016-08-19. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  2. 1 2 "Livechat Software FY 2015/2016 net profit rises to 28.1 mln zlotys". Reuters. 2016-07-17. Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  3. 1 2 "LiveChat Software FY net profit up at 18.6 million zlotys". Reuters. 2015-06-19. Retrieved 2016-03-25.
  4. ↑ "Google Finance". 2015-07-14.
  5. ↑ Rogers, Stewart (2015-11-17). "Web hosting firms win customers' hearts with live chat, but automotive is failing". VentureBeat. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  6. ↑ "Livechat Software number of clients at 16,204 as of Aug 1". 2016-08-02.
  7. ↑ Ingram, Katie (2013-02-27). "LiveChat Redesigns its Product to Improve the Chat Experience". CMSwire. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  8. 1 2 Wauters, Robin (2011-10-24). "LiveChat Founders Buy Out Investor Naspers, Regain 60% Stake". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  9. 1 2 Tolentino, Mellisa (2011-10-25). "LiveChat Completes Management Buy-Out, Now 60% Employee Owned". SiliconANGLE. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  10. ↑ Carr, David F. (2011-08-10). "Customer Support Gets Personal With Facebook Connection". InformationWeek. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  11. ↑ "Warsaw Voice - Capital Partners Plans New Floats". 2008-02-20.
  12. ↑ "4.00M for LiveChat Software S.A.". 2008-02-02.
  13. ↑ "Gadu-Gadu invests in LiveChat Software". 2008-02-02.
  14. ↑ "Stock Card - LiveChat LVC". 2014-04-12.
  15. ↑ LiveChat case study helped Elastic.co, Retrieved 2016-08-19.
  16. ↑ Postmark helped LiveChat scale to 10,000 customers Postmark, Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  17. ↑ LiveChat more than doubles its subscribers in 18 months with the help of Recurly. Recurly, Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  18. ↑ How LiveChat uses Pingdom. Pingdom, Retrieved 2015-12-30.
  19. ↑ "LiveChat Software listed at MySQL AB Partners & Solutions". Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  20. ↑ "Red Hat Software Catalog Application Profile".
  21. ↑ "The Web Entrepreneur's Customer Service Toolbox: 100 Hacks and Resources". 2007-10-24. Retrieved 2008-02-25.
  22. ↑ Kawasaki, Guy (2007-10-25). "A Night in the Life of Guy Kawasaki Plus Cool Stuff Friday". How to Change the World. Retrieved 2008-02-25. This is a compilation of useful tools and services to maintain a high-level of customer service. These tools help you keep in touch, run meetings, do accounting, provide support, and solicit feedback.
  23. ↑ "2011 Deloitte technology Fast 50 in Central Europe". Deloitte. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
  24. ↑ "2012 Deloitte technology Fast 50 in Central Europe". Deloitte. Retrieved 13 March 2013.
  25. ↑ "2013 Red Herring Europe Finalists". Red Herring. Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  26. ↑ "2013 Deloitte technology Fast 50 in Central Europe" (PDF). Deloitte. Retrieved 8 November 2013.
  27. ↑ "Winners of V edition". Executive Club. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  28. ↑ "Three GPW-Listed Polish Companies Shortlisted For The European Small And Mid-Cap Awards". Mondo Visione. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
  29. ↑ "European Small and Mid-Cap Awards 2015". The Federation of European Securities Exchanges. Retrieved 17 December 2015.
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