Zendesk is the latest name to be added to the roster at the Factory as the customer service platform looks to improve its offering in the German-speaking world. Originally founded in Copenhagen before moving to its current base in San Francisco in 2009, Zendesk now boasts 30,000 customers, including 1,000 in Germany, and claims to have given support to some 200 million people worldwide.
The company joins the likes of SoundCloud, Mozilla and 6Wunderkinder in moving into the Factory, whose main building occupies a former brewery adjacent to the former Berlin Wall death strip in Mitte.
The new Zendesk office will house the direct sales and ‘customer enablement’ teams of the DACH region and Eastern Europe. It will be headed up by Steffen Teske, Zendesk’s director of Central and Eastern Europe.
The move comes following significant growth in Europe as a whole and Germany in particular for the company, with the number of customers here doubling in the past year. Berlin sees the third new Zendesk office this year after Tokyo and Dublin.
In a press release sent out to media on Wednesday morning, Teske said: “We have experienced huge growth in the German market, and it makes sense to be physically located there to support our customers and partners. The digital heart of Germany is beating in Berlin, and we are very proud to officially be a part of it.”
The importance of Berlin as a hub of innovation was also noted by Mikkel Svane, founder and CEO of Zendesk, who said: “An ecosystem of innovative startups and established digital companies is growing here. Being in Berlin brings us closer to our customers and to talented entrepreneurs and professionals as we grow rapidly throughout Europe.”
Since its founding in 2007, Zendesk has raised around $85.5 million (€63.9m at today’s exchange rate). It’s one of the larger players in the crowded online customer support market, facing rivals including Salesforce‘s Desk.com.