Front

Front makes a customer operations platform that brings email, SMS, WhatsApp, live chat and other channels into shared inboxes where teams can assign, discuss and answer customer conversations, now with AI features for support teams. Mathilde Collin and Laurent Perrin founded the company in Paris in 2013 with backing from the startup studio eFounders, then moved to San Francisco after going through Y Combinator. Collin led Front as chief executive for more than a decade and is now executive chair; Dan O'Connell became CEO in 2024. Front reports more than 9,300 business customers.

Front's $3.1 million seed round, announced in September 2014, was led by SoftTech VC with Boldstart Ventures, Point Nine Capital and Caffeinated Capital, plus angels including Alexis Ohanian, Garry Tan and Elad Gil. Social Capital led a $10 million Series A in May 2016, with Mamoon Hamid as the partner. Sequoia Capital led a $66 million Series B in January 2018 with DFJ and existing investors, bringing total funding to $79 million, and Bryan Schreier joined the board. The $59 million Series C in January 2020 was led by individual executives, including Atlassian's Mike Cannon-Brookes, Okta's Frederic Kerrest and Zoom's Eric Yuan, with Sequoia, Initialized Capital and Anthos Capital participating. In 2022 Front raised a $65 million Series D at a $1.7 billion valuation, led by Salesforce Ventures with Battery Ventures, Sequoia, Threshold Ventures and Uncork, for total funding of $204 million.

Front is privately held. The company says it surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue in 2025 and has more than 300 employees across five offices. At the Series D it reported about 8,000 customers in more than 100 countries, including Uber, Shopify and Airbnb. Its customer count, revenue and valuation since 2022 are not public beyond those company figures.

Front is an example of a capital efficient software company. It reached a $1.7 billion valuation on $204 million of total funding, and its CEO said at the Series B that the company had raised without needing the money. Seed investors such as SoftTech VC and Caffeinated Capital, and Series A lead Social Capital, entered when Front had about 1,000 customers or fewer; Sequoia came in at the Series B in 2018. Nearly thirteen years after founding, those positions have not yet had a liquidity event.