Assertion Supported AI assessment confidence: 95% certainty 4/5 debate potential 3/5

Lemkin: Fast-growing AI contact center startups rely on BPO revenue

Jason Lemkin · Elon’s Empire: SpaceX, Tesla, Neuralink After the Storm & Anduril’s $2.6BN Power Move · 20VC with Harry Stebbings · Jun 12, 2025 · at 59:09

Jason Lemkin is a SaaS investor and founder of SaaStr. He cautions that high revenue figures reported by some AI contact center companies stem from low-margin outsourced labor services rather than pure SaaS contracts.

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“A lot of the folks that are exploding, I don't mean to, in the AI contact center with huge numbers, have either acquired or indirectly acquired BPOs. So they're attack tack attaching into that seventy five billion in a very interesting way. Not all that revenue is necessarily software SaaS or AI.”

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The claim, plainly

Jason Lemkin asserts that many fast-growing AI contact center startups are generating revenue by acquiring business process outsourcing (BPO) operations rather than selling pure software or AI technology.

a quote alone can be ambiguous, so this restates it with the references and context of the conversation around it resolved. AI-written; the tape below the player is the source.

Assessment

The resolution criteria require confirmation that at least two prominent, fast-growing AI contact center startups have acquired or indirectly acquired BPO firms to augment their revenue. Research confirms two explicit examples: 1) Crescendo (valued at $500M) acquired BPO operator PartnerHero in October 2024, inheriting 3,000+ employees and 200+ enterprise clients to transition labor spend into tech-enabled outcomes. 2) PopAI (founded in 2023) acquired an established 18-year-old BPO firm with 2,500+ employees across multiple countries to blend AI agent solutions with physical human workforce operations.

Crescendo acquired BPO provider PartnerHero in October 2024, inheriting 3,000+ employees and 200+ enterprise customers.
PopAI acquired an established BPO company in 2024 with over 2,500 professionals across several countries to integrate AI agent solutions with BPO operations.

Checked against

[1] podscripts.co [2] partnerhero.com [3] crescendo.ai [4] influx.com [5] outsourceaccelerator.com [6] fin.ai [7] note.com [8] twig.so

assessed as of 2026-07-23

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Mentioned

AI contact center startups business process outsourcing

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