We are Ultimate

The Ultimate team on a boat.

We're the customer support automation platform you won’t outgrow. And having been recently acquired by Zendesk, we're on a mission to build the world’s most advanced AI agents in CX.

The Ultimate journey

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2014

2014

Ultimate’s origins

Reetu Kainulainen, Jaakko Pasanen, and Markus Rautio meet at Tampere University in Finland. They found a food delivery startup, Culinar Oy, that fails.

2016
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2016

The Ultimate idea

Bored on a Sunday, the trio take part in a Helsinki hackathon. Reetu sees the event support staff struggling. On a whim, he creates a demo for a support bot that wins first place. Ultimate is born.

2017
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2017

Assembling the dream team

When Ultimate is recommended by SAP for Berlin’s Techstars program, they end up in Finance Associate Sarah Al-Hussaini’s portfolio. Impressed by the product and ready for a new challenge, Sarah becomes Ultimate’s COO.

2019
2019

2019

Winning customers

As the team hones the product, Ultimate expands globally. Big-name brands like Finnair, Zalando, and GetYourGuide trust Ultimate as their automation partner.

2020-icon
2020

2020

Wowing investors

Ultimate raises $20M in Series A funding — with investments by OMERS Ventures, Felicis Ventures, HV Capital, and Maki.vc.

2021
2021

2021

Accelerated growth

Ultimate is a consistent leader on tech review platform G2 and our partnerships with CRM, tech, and service providers continue to deepen: Zendesk itself uses Ultimate to automate their support.

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2023

2023

Innovating for the future

ChatGPT takes the world by storm. Staying at the forefront of AI innovation, Ultimate releases a generative AI bot to customers: UltimateGPT.

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2024

2024

Ultimate joins Zendesk

Recognizing Ultimate as the most sophisticated AI platform for CX, Zendesk acquires Ultimate. We join forces to pioneer the AI-first era of customer service together. 

The top ecommerce, finance, telco & travel companies use Ultimate to increase efficiency and maximize ROI

Ultimate is driven by 4 key values

Trust-3 Trust We trust in our people fully and instantly, and value the confidence our customers place in us.
Impact-1 Impact We are driven by creating real value for our customers, and both recognize and celebrate the impact of our team.
Ethics-1 Ethics We are proudly diverse, and committed to using our platform as a force for good.
CustomerSuccess-1 Customer success We know our customers have unique journeys, and define our success in terms of theirs.

Finnish born, German raised, going global

We’ve come a long way from our Helsinki hackathon roots. But customer success is still our north star — and putting people at the heart of everything we do keeps us on the right track.

As well as building cutting-edge AI technology to solve support’s greatest problems, we take pride in building an inclusive company culture that fosters belonging. Want to be part of our journey?

Check out our careers page

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Our differences make us stronger

At Ultimate, we’re proudly diverse. Everyone has a seat and a voice at the table. We lead by example to shape the company — and industry — we want to see, together.

Ultimates worldwide 140
Nationalities in our team 37
Women in our team 40%
Worldwide
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