# Kayako

> Kayako is a customer support software company that builds an AI-powered help desk platform: a shared inbox, ticketing, live chat, knowledge base and omnichannel messaging pulled into one place. Founded in 2001 by teenage college dropout Varun Shoor in Jalandhar, India, it grew into a bootstrapped SaaS business serving roughly 50,000 companies across 100+ countries - including Peugeot, De Beers and NASA - before being acquired by Austin private-equity firm ESW Capital in 2018. In 2026 it repositioned around AI, collapsing its plans into a single 'Kayako One' subscription with resolution-based pricing at about $1 per AI-resolved ticket.

- **Founded:** 2001
- **Headquarters:** London, United Kingdom
- **Founders:** Varun Shoor (Founder & former CEO), Jamie Edwards (Co-founder & former COO)
- **Team size:** Historically several hundred employees across London, Gurgaon and Singapore; smaller and streamlined post-2018 acquisition.
- **Products:** Kayako One (AI Help Desk Platform), Kay (AI Support Agent), Shared Inbox & Ticketing, Knowledge Base & Help Center, SupportSuite / Fusion (legacy)
- **Notable:** Bootstrapped from a teenager's side project into a global SaaS company serving 100+ countries with no venture capital., Named as a direct competitor in Zendesk's IPO filing., Signed marquee customers including NASA, Peugeot and De Beers.

## Products & services

- **Kayako One (AI Help Desk Platform)** — Unified customer support platform combining an omnichannel shared inbox, ticketing, live chat, knowledge base, workflow automation, SLAs, analytics and enterprise security in a single product.
- **Kay (AI Support Agent)** — AI agent that suggests replies, summarizes ticket threads and autonomously resolves repetitive customer inquiries, billed at roughly $1 per resolved ticket.
- **Shared Inbox & Ticketing** — Merges email, live chat, social media, SMS, WhatsApp and web forms into one inbox with custom fields, multi-brand support and real-time notifications.
- **Knowledge Base & Help Center** — Self-service portal and searchable knowledge base that deflects repetitive tickets and lets customers find answers on their own.
- **SupportSuite / Fusion (legacy)** — Kayako's original self-hosted help desk suite that established the company in the 2000s before the cloud rebuild.

## Achievements

- Bootstrapped from a teenager's side project into a global SaaS company serving 100+ countries with no venture capital.
- Named as a direct competitor in Zendesk's IPO filing.
- Signed marquee customers including NASA, Peugeot and De Beers.
- Acquired by ESW Capital in 2018 in a notable bootstrapped exit.
- Reinvented itself around AI in 2026 with resolution-based pricing, a rare pricing model in the category.

## Latest updates

- **2026-01** — Consolidated pricing into a single 'Kayako One' plan (~$79/month) with usage-based AI resolutions at ~$1 per resolved ticket, eliminating per-agent fees.
- **2026-01** — Repositioned the whole platform around AI with the tagline 'Scale Support. Not Headcount.' and an AI support agent named Kay.

## Links

- Website: https://kayako.com
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/kayako
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/Kayako
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@kayako
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kayako/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kayako/

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/kayako
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-08-06