AppDirect buys Xendo to expand intelligent search for cloud apps
App marketplace vendor AppDirect has acquired Xendo, a two-year-old startup behind a hosted enterprise search product. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Featured
Xendo's product is similar to Apple's Spotlight Search, except for cloud apps.
For instance, a user can type a query asking, "Who at my company knows a lot about Big Data" and Xendo can retrieve answers based on data in connected cloud apps companywide. Because it's built with machine learning techniques, Xendo's search capabilities grow more predictive and prescriptive over time.
San Francisco-based AppDirect, which makes a white-label app marketplace that allows businesses to sell software-as-a-service applications to other businesses, plans to use Xendo's core technology to build intelligent search capabilities into its platform.
Xendo will continue to operate independently but will also be offered as a standalone app in the AppDirect Network.
Xendo marks AppDirect's sixth acquisition, following previous deals to buy AppCarousel, Leftronic, Standing Cloud, jBilling.
AppDirect currently powers the marketplaces of Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, Telstra, ADP and FICO -- providing app distribution services to more than 30 million businesses around the world.
In October, the company closed a $140 million Series E funding round led by J.P. Morgan Asset Management with participation from Peter Thiel's Mithril Capital.
The capital injection came just eight months after AppDirect's $50 million Series D, and pushed the cloud startup into the unicorn realm at a valuation of just over $1 billion. Since its founding in 2009, AppDirect has raised a total of $245 million.