High-flying customer experience vendors Talkdesk, Dialpad, and Zoho have claimed their places on the 2023 Forbes Cloud 100 List.
The tech providers placed eighth, 25th, and 41st, respectively.
Other brands to make the list – which touch the CX space – include Gong, ActiveCampaign, and MessageBird – claiming the 23rd, 84th, and 99th spots.
In putting the list together, Forbes shines a light on 100 of the “top” privately-held cloud computing companies from around the globe.
Previously, it has included the likes of Zoom, Slack, and Snowflake, which have since become public businesses. As such, they no longer meet the criteria for entry.
Talkdesk, Dialpad, and Zoho: CX Innovators
Tiago Paiva, CEO of Talkdesk, celebrated this news on LinkedIn:
Despite slipping down a place from last year, Talkdesk is the only CCaaS provider to make the Top 20 – likely because of its robust customer relationships.
Indeed, it recently topped the G2 Enterprise Grid for Contact Center report, and the latest Gartner “Voice of the Customer” CCaaS study labeled Talkdesk one of three “Customers’ Choice” providers.
Meanwhile, Craig Walker, Founder and CEO at Dialpad, jumped onto social media to toast his business’s inclusion and thank his team. He stated:
It’s an exciting validation of all the work we’ve done to build #AiForGood, helping our customers leverage Dialpad Ai as a powerful force for deeper customer intelligence and more effective business conversations.
In doing so, Dialpad has differentiated its AI, building everything in-house rather than assembling various capabilities through partnerships. That gives the provider more control over its roadmap.
Finally, Sridhar Vembu, CEO of Zoho, has yet to publicly comment on the news.
Yet, it comes after the businesses entered the UCaaS market, launching Trident earlier this year to support companies in converging their communications stack.
More Highlights from The Forbes Cloud 100
The Forbes Cloud 100 list offers due recognition to many pioneering SaaS businesses.
However, it’s critical to note that it includes companies that have taken investments from Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures. These capital partners assisted Forbes in creating the list.
Despite this, there are many fascinating threads to pull at.
For instance, the list emphasizes the impact of the tricky macro-environment within the cloud economy.
Indeed, this is the first year the total list value decreased year-over-year (YoY), down 11 percent at $654BN. This figure stood at $738BN 12 months ago.
In this context, cloud companies are focusing on efficiency and profitability – according to Mary D’Onofrio, Partner and Co-Founder at Bessemer Venture Partners.
Talking on the Forbes YouTube channel, she stated:
25 percent of the Cloud 100 is projected to be cash flow positive or break even by the end of this year, and two-thirds are projected to be cash flow positive or break even by the end of 2024.
Finally, burgeoning AI-native businesses have helped to disrupt the list, with five new entrants. These include Hugging Face, Anthropic, DeepL, Midjourney, and – taking the number one spot – OpenAI.
By doing so, OpenAI has displaced Stripe, which had held the top spot for several years.
Continuing on the AI theme, 55 of those Cloud 100 companies have launched a generative AI product in the last eight months.
Moreover, 70 percent of companies say that they’re using AI or machine learning in their products.
For more on AI in the enterprise, check out our article: ChatGPT Hype Is Driving Enterprise-Grade AI Adoption, says Gartner
