Salesforce, investor in two African unicorns, acquires Fin in $3.6bn deal

Salesforce has agreed to acquire Fin, the customer-service AI company formerly known as Intercom, in a $3.6 billion deal. The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of Salesforce’s fiscal year 2027, pending regulatory clearance.

At the sell price, it is one of the largest exits for an Irish-founded tech company on record, surpassing the $2.4 billion Verizon paid for Dublin-based Fleetmatics in 2016. 

The Fin acquisition shows an interest in agentic AI. Fin’s flagship product, built on a proprietary model called Apex, handles customer queries across live chat, email, WhatsApp, SMS, phone, and Slack, resolving an average of 76% of support volume without human intervention. The company has more than 30,000 business customers.

Salesforce plans to fold Fin’s technology into Agentforce, its enterprise AI agent platform, which posted $1.2 billion in annual recurring revenue last quarter, up 205% year-on-year. Where Agentforce lets companies build custom agents, Fin offers an out-of-the-box product with a track record, giving Salesforce speed.

“Fin brings proven agent technology, a deep commitment to customer success, and an incredible AI team that will complement Agentforce with powerful service agent capabilities,” said Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce.

The purchaser, through its investment arm, has backed two of  Africa’s unicorns: Andela, the talent marketplace and Flutterwave, the Nigerian payments infrastructure company.

Fin was founded in 2011 by Eoghan McCabe, Des Trayner, Ciaran Lee, and David Barrett. It rebranded in May to signal its pivot from customer communication tools to full AI agents.

Salesforce said the deal will not affect its fiscal 2027 guidance. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approval.

Last updated: June 15, 2026