Fin, formerly Intercom, Inc., is a software company that provides an AI-driven customer service and messaging platform. It is headquartered in San Francisco with offices in Chicago, Dublin, Sydney and London.
History
Intercom was founded in California in 2011 by four Irish designers and engineers, Eoghan McCabe, Des Traynor, Ciaran Lee, and David Barrett.[2] The founders had previously operated a software design consultancy named Contrast, which created the bug tracking tool called Exceptional. In 2011, Exceptional was sold to Rackspace, and the proceeds were used to establish Intercom.[3]
In 2012, Intercom received an investment from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone,[4] followed by seed funding from investors including David Sacks, Huddle founder Andy McLoughlin, Dan Martell, 500 Global (previously 500 Startups), and Digital Garage.[5][6]
In March 2013, Intercom announced a $6 million Series A round led by Social Capital.[7] In January 2014, it received a $23 million Series B funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners.[8] Intercom also received a $50 million Series C-1 funding led by Index Ventures.[9][10]
In 2017, Intercom offered to cover legal fees for individuals affected by a proposed U.S. travel ban who wished to relocate to Ireland.[11]
In 2018, Intercom announced a $125 million Series D round led by Kleiner Perkins, with participation from Google Ventures.[12]
In 2019, allegations of inappropriate conduct were made against co-founder Eoghan McCabe.[13] The company stated that both internal and external investigations cleared him of wrongdoing.[14][15] On July 1, 2020, Karen Peacock was appointed chief executive officer.[16] In July 2021, co-founder and then-chief technology officer Ciarán Lee departed the company. The company's board reappointed McCabe as CEO in October 2022.[15][17]
In 2023, Intercom scaled back some internal programs and public support for social causes. Subsequently, McCabe's activity on Twitter drew internal criticism from staff; he addressed the concerns in a company-wide meeting.[18] In the same year, Intercom also ended support for the Twitter API support citing price changes.[19]
In 2024, Intercom announced a $94 million investment in AI research and development.[20]
In October 2025, Intercom opened a new research and development hub in Berlin, its first dedicated R&D center outside of Dublin and San Francisco. The company planned to hire 100 engineers, AI researchers, and designers for the hub, focusing on development of the Fin AI agent.[21]
In March 2026, Intercom raised $250 million in venture debt from Hercules Capital to fund continued development of its AI agent platform. CEO Eoghan McCabe stated the company chose debt financing over equity to avoid diluting existing shareholders.[22]
In May 2026, Intercom was renamed as Fin.[23] In June 2026, Fin agreed to be acquired by Salesforce for approximately US$3.6 billion. The acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce's fiscal year 2027, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.[24]
Products
Intercom's platform integrates live chat, chatbot automation, a help desk ticketing system, and a customer data platform.[25] It allows businesses to add a chat interface to websites and mobile apps.[25] The system includes a unified team inbox, knowledge base management, and tools for targeted in-app and email messages.[20]
In 2017, Intercom introduced a chatbot named Operator.[26] In 2022, the company rebuilt its Inbox and launched Surveys, for customer feedback, and Switch, which allows users to move from a phone call to a text chat.[27]
In 2023, Intercom introduced Fin, an AI chatbot powered by large language models.[28][29] Initially using OpenAI's GPT-4, Fin was designed to answer customer questions by referencing a company's help center content.[30] By late 2023, Intercom reported that the bot could resolve nearly 50% of incoming queries automatically.[30]
In 2024, Intercom released Fin 2, which uses Anthropic's Claude model.[30] Fin 2 includes the ability to perform actions for customers in addition to answering questions. Intercom has integrated other AI features, such as conversation summaries, as part of its AI-first focus.[28][31]
In March 2026, Intercom introduced Fin Apex 1.0, a post-trained language model for customer support resolution tasks.[32]
In May 2026, Fin released Fin Operator, an AI agent to assist support operations teams by monitoring, configuring, and improving the performance of the customer-facing Fin AI agent.[33]
References
- ^ "Intercom | Company Overview & News". Forbes. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
- ^ O'Brien, Ciara. "Serial founders expanding his tech success from base in the Valley". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Newenham, Pamela. "Four Irishmen on a mission to build a billion-dollar company". The Irish Times. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Bort, Julie. "How drinking Guinness with Biz Stone launched one of the fastest-growing startups in the Valley today". Business Insider. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
- ^ O'Dell, Jolie (January 25, 2012). "Startup Intercom nabs $1M from Biz Stone and other prominent angels". Reuters. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Rao, Leena (January 25, 2012). "Biz Stone, 500 Startups And Others Put $1M In CRM For Web Businesses Intercom". TechCrunch.
- ^ Ha, Anthony (June 19, 2013). "Customer Communication Startup Intercom Raises $6M Round Led By The Social+Capital Partnership". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Lunden, Ingrid (January 22, 2014). "Intercom Raises Another $23M For Its New, More Social Approach To CRM". TechCrunch. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Goldfisher, Alastair (April 7, 2016). "Index leads $50 mln funding round for Intercom". PE Hub. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Garland, Russ (April 7, 2016). "Index Ventures Backs Intercom in $50 Million Series D". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Geron, Tomio; Zakrzewski, Cat (February 1, 2017). "Startup Investors and Executives Denounce Border Curbs". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved February 24, 2017.
- ^ Roof, Katie (March 27, 2018). "Intercom raises $125 million to take on Salesforce". TechCrunch. Retrieved May 15, 2018.
- ^ Weckler, Adrian (May 11, 2019). "Irish tech boss McCabe admitted 'poor judgment' with female staff as he built up €1bn company". Irish Independent. Retrieved May 13, 2022.
- ^ Bernard, Zoë (May 9, 2019). "Harassment Allegations Against Intercom CEO Sparked Departures". The Information. Retrieved July 7, 2023.
- ^ a b ""Eoghan McCabe Is Back As CEO At Business Messaging Startup Intercom"". Forbes. October 6, 2022. Retrieved February 28, 2023.
- ^ Miller, Ron (June 18, 2020). "Intercom announces the promotion of Karen Peacock to CEO". TechCrunch.com. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
- ^ Lunden, Ingrid (October 6, 2022). "Eoghan McCabe, the controversial Intercom co-founder who left the CEO role in 2020, is stepping back in". TechCrunch.
- ^ O'Brien, Ciara (July 7, 2023). "Intercom CEO promises to be 'more thoughtful' in Twitter engagement". The Irish Times. Retrieved July 8, 2023.
- ^ Binder, Matt (April 14, 2023). "Intercom drops Twitter support citing Musk's new exorbitant API pricing". Mashable.
- ^ a b Gleeson, Colin. "Intercom boss wants 'aggression on all fronts' in €87m AI investment". The Irish Times.
- ^ Lawrence, Cate (October 29, 2025). "Intercom expands to Berlin with new AI R&D Hub and 100 jobs". Tech.eu. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
- ^ Gleeson, Colin (March 10, 2026). "Intercom raises $250 million in debt financing to fund AI agents". The Irish Times. Retrieved May 1, 2026.
- ^ Taylor, Charlie (May 12, 2026). "Intercom rebrands as Fin as AI business nears $100m milestone". Business Post.
- ^ Curran, Ian (June 15, 2026). "Salesforce to buy Irish-founded tech firm Fin for $3.6bn". The Irish Times.
- ^ a b Taylor, Charlie. "Intercom to create 150 new jobs at Dublin HQ". The Irish Times.
- ^ Shinal, John (August 9, 2017). "Why this start-up is teaching A.I. chatbots to have 'manners'". CNBC.
- ^ Taylor, Charlie. "Tech unicorn Intercom overhauls platform with two new products". The Irish Times.
- ^ a b Palazzolo, Stephanie; Muppidi, Sri (June 13, 2025). "AI Customer Support Startups Intercom, Kore.ai Discuss Multibillion-Dollar Valuations With Investors". The Information.
- ^ Yeung, Ken (April 10, 2024). "Intercom's new Fin AI Copilot gives customer service agents their personal AI assistant". VentureBeat.
- ^ a b c Hogg, Ryan. "Irish-founded unicorn Intercom ditches ChatGPT for Anthropic's Claude". Fortune.
- ^ Ballard, Barclay (May 22, 2024). "Intercom review". TechRadar.
- ^ Franzen, Carl (March 26, 2026). "Intercom's new post-trained Fin Apex 1.0 beats GPT-5.4 and Claude Sonnet 4.6 at customer service resolutions".
- ^ Nuñez, Michael (May 15, 2026). "Intercom, now called Fin, launches an AI agent whose only job is managing another AI agent".
