Salesforce Eyes $2B Acquisition of AI Customer Research Startup Listen Labs

Salesforce is reportedly in talks to acquire AI research startup Listen Labs for approximately $2 billion, according to Business Insider. This potential deal would be Salesforce's fourth acquisition related to artificial intelligence this year, following Fin, Informatica, and Convergence. The valuation of Listen Labs has increased significantly over the past eight months, from $500 million to a potential $2 billion, based on the company's annualized revenue of around $30 million.

Listen Labs uses AI to run customer interviews, replacing weeks-long human-run focus groups with hours of AI-driven conversations. The startup's technology designs and runs interviews, then turns the conversations into reports and highlight reels, drawing from a panel of over 30 million pre-qualified participants. This addition could fill a gap in Salesforce's product offerings, providing businesses with insights into their customers' thoughts, wants, and opinions.

While the deal is still in discussion, it would come as no surprise given the increasing focus on AI infrastructure this quarter. Nvidia recently agreed to buy Hugging Face for $12.9 billion, and other companies are raising substantial funding rounds at high valuations. If Salesforce acquires Listen Labs, it will be paying a multiple of around 67 times its revenue, a figure some may find hard to justify.