Step aside unicorns, there’s a new breed in town. Cloud-based call centre and phone system provider Aircall has just announced that it has passed $100 million (€94.4 million) in Annual Recurring Revenue – just one year after it hit unicorn valuation.
The French startup, founded in 2014, has been on our radar for a while – having pioneered phone systems for modern business. It’s been a skyrocketing company and this new announcement gives further credence to its innovative solution. We chatted to CEO and Co-Founder Olivier Pailhes back in 2018 to learn about the impressive growth story of the company and what was in store for the future. Back then, reaching centaur status wasn’t mentioned, but it was clear this startup had a promising future. In fact, just two years after we were able to get in touch with the team again with news of a Series C raise of €59.2 million.
Now, the team of over 700 are based in offices across the world, including New York, Paris, Sydney, Berlin, and London.
Aircall’s aim is to make voice conversations more valuable and more connected. The system boasts a simple set-up and has simple integrations (with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zendesk, Slack, Intercom and more), meaning that it can help companies across industries of various sizes. In the past couple of years, businesses around the globe have had to majority rethink operations with remote working and the swift movement to digitization. It has meant that there’s been an increased need for innovative ways to communicate effectively – and Aircall has stepped up to the plate.
Aircall’s platform makes phone systems easy to manage, prioritising three pillars of accessibility, transparency and collaboration. The overarching belief is that a great conversation is the best way to communicate with customers, prospects, candidates, and colleagues – and this shouldn’t be hindered by distance.
Olivier Pailhès, Aircall co-founder and CEO said: “We’ve seen businesses worldwide evaluating the current economic environment and increasingly looking for simple phone systems and call center softwares that are easy to implement and increase efficiency and productivity, but also improve the quality of their customer experience. We’re delighted to reach this milestone as a company, as it represents the continued value we bring to customers around the world and helps further our mission of empowering every professional to have richer conversations.”
With this announcement, Aircall also boasts a 70% YoY growth in revenue and a 107% YoY increase in large customers. And there are no plans of slowing things down. The startup will now maintain its growth by focusing on fundamentals – continuing to enrich its marketplace to empower every professional to have richer conversations.
The Aircall ecosystem currently integrates with more than 100 leading business tools, including Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft Teams, Intercom and more. It will keep scaling up investment in R&D with plans to focus on addressing bigger customers in the mid-market segment. Aircall’s growth relies strongly on internationalization, and following the success of its North America headquarters, the company continues to open new offices in cities around the globe, with plans to expand in Singapore and Madrid later this year.
Jonathan Anguelov, Aircall co-founder and General Manager added: “We’re very proud of reaching this milestone just 6 years after our first million dollars of revenue. This is a strong indication of the worldwide demand for technology solutions. Reaching $100m ARR is an important metric, and it offers a valuable perspective on how Aircall is performing in a volatile market. It also brings us a step closer to public scale. After opening offices in Australia, UK and Germany, we’re excited to continue our expansion worldwide and keep building a team that is pushing what cloud-based phone solutions can offer.”
