Salesforce in talks to acquire Listen Labs for $2B

Salesforce is in discussions to buy Listen Labs, an AI-powered customer research startup, for approximately $2 billion. The deal, if completed, would represent a jaw-dropping 4x markup from the company’s $500 million valuation just eight months ago. Listen Labs was founded in 2023 and has spent its short existence automating the kind of qualitative customer research that traditionally requires rooms full of human interviewers, clipboard-wielding moderators, and weeks of scheduling headaches. Its AI interviewers can design studies, recruit participants from a global network, and conduct the conversations themselves. The company has already run more than 1 million interviews. A startup growing faster than Salesforce can ignore Listen Labs reported 15x annualized revenue growth. Its client list includes Microsoft, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity, Nestlé, and Sweetgreen. In January 2026, Listen Labs raised $69 million in a Series B round at a $500 million valuation. The startup had reportedly signed a term sheet for a $125 million Series C at a $1.5 billion valuation. Then it walked away from the deal. The reason: ongoing acquisition conversations with Salesforce that could deliver a far...