Silicon Valley start-up Intercom is backing London with launch

One of Silicon Valley’s fastest-growing start-ups, backed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, is to open its first London office in a sign of confidence in the capital.

Intercom, a messaging app which allows businesses to chat to their customers, valued at $500 million (£393 million), was founded six years ago in San Francisco by four Irish entrepreneurs.

It also has offices in Dublin and Chicago and will open a London base, the exact location of which has yet to be decided, for software developers and engineers, brushing off concerns about a shortage of technology talent.

Co-founder Des Traynor said: “If you talk to anyone from any start-up city... everyone will complain that there’s not enough engineers, and there’s not enough designers. London is certainly no different.”

Intercom has raised $116 million from backers including Iconiq Capital, the secretive Silicon Valley venture-capital firm which counts Zuckerberg, Sandberg, and Dorsey as investors.