Bhavin Shah & Moveworks: The Journey to a $2.85 Billion ServiceNow Acquisition
From startup to $2.85B acquisition by ServiceNow! Explore Bhavin Shah's journey & Moveworks' AI impact on enterprise productivity.
What if getting help at work – whether it's resetting a password, accessing an application, or understanding an HR policy – was as simple as asking a question? That's the reality Bhavin Shah and his team at Moveworks created for hundreds of thousands of employees globally, culminating in a landmark $2.85 billion acquisition agreement with ServiceNow announced in April 2025. As a three-time entrepreneur with over two decades navigating the heart of Silicon Valley, Bhavin's journey offers invaluable lessons in technology, vision, and the relentless pursuit of solving real-world problems.
Dive deeper into Bhavin Shah's incredible entrepreneurial journey before this major acquisition, his insights on building world-class teams, navigating the VC landscape, and the future of AI in the enterprise by listening to his full conversation on the Founder Thesis podcast.
Check out the video of the conversation here or read on for insights.
From Silicon Valley's Dawn to Stanford Halls
Bhavin Shah's story is deeply intertwined with the rise of Silicon Valley itself. Growing up in San Jose in the 80s, technology wasn't just an industry; it was the neighborhood. His father, an early IIT Bombay graduate who pursued his Master's at Berkeley, worked in banking technology, bringing home early IBM PCs and clones. Bhavin recalls programming on a TRS-80 around age nine and spending Friday nights exploring the legendary (and now defunct) Fry's Electronics, buying components to build his own computers like the Intel 386 and 486 from scratch.
It all felt very normal for me to open up a computer, take out the hard drive, put in a bigger one... That was normal.
This environment fostered a unique upbringing. Bhavin remembers a neighbor down the street who worked at Atari giving him beta game chips to test, and even having breakfast with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak in 7th grade after his school was asked to select a student.
I had breakfast with Steve Wozniak and again that felt very normal because the Bay Area was all about technology and that's what I thought was much of the world.
These experiences laid the foundation for a lifelong passion for technology. Following his interest, Bhavin pursued Computer Science at UC San Diego (UCSD), known for its practical, hands-on engineering program.
[UCSD has a] fantastic engineering program... It's very practical. It's very hands-on. You learn a ton about what it really means to build using code.
However, a project with Dr. Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, sparked a new interest: using technology for education.
I just fell in love with this idea of technology and education, not just technology for technology's sake...
This led him to Stanford University for a unique Master's degree blending Computer Science, Education, and Business – essentially crafting his own curriculum in the emerging field of Education Technology.
Leapfrog: Learning the Ropes in EdTech 🐸
Armed with his specialized degree, Bhavin joined LeapFrog Enterprises in 2000. At the time, it was a small educational toy company with around 50 employees. Bhavin arrived just as the company was poised for explosive growth, fueled by its hit product, the LeapPad – an interactive device teaching kids phonics and reading.
During his five years there, Bhavin experienced a rocket ship ride:
Hypergrowth: Leapfrog grew from ~50 to 1500 employees.
Market Leadership: Became the #2 US toy company by market cap, behind only Mattel and Hasbro.
IPO: Went public on the NYSE in 2002.
Revenue Surge: Witnessed revenue climb from approximately $30M to $450M.
He held roles in Business Development and Product Development, managing third-party publishing for the Leapster handheld and even leading initiatives using LeapFrog tech for healthcare education in places like Afghanistan. This period provided invaluable experience in scaling, product development, engineering, and seeing a company transition from nascent startup to public giant.
It was just it was an incredible time to be in that industry in that town at that place... Again I thought that was normal... Little did I know how fortunate and... how lucky I was to kind of experience that firsthand.
First Ventures: Gaming & Productivity 🎮➡️📊
The entrepreneurial spirit, deeply ingrained from his Silicon Valley upbringing where "every uncle" seemed to be starting a company, eventually called.
Gazillion Entertainment (2005-2011): Bhavin co-founded Gazillion, initially aiming to blend education with massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). While the educational angle proved challenging in the hits-driven gaming market, the company pivoted. As COO and Board Member, Bhavin helped grow Gazillion to over 300 employees, securing major partnerships with Marvel (creating games like Marvel Super Hero Squad Online) and LEGO. He managed operations, IT, CS, analytics, platform engineering, outsourced development, and administration (HR, legal, finance), raised venture capital, and oversaw multiple acquisitions. The shift away from the original mission eventually led to his departure.
If you think about the origin of the company, it was about education. We were no longer doing that. So my necessarily passion for it wasn't the same as when I first started.
Refresh.io (2011-2015): After Gazillion, Bhavin sought a new challenge. Inspired by seeing briefing dossiers used by dignitaries during his Leapfrog trip to Afghanistan, he envisioned a tool that could digitally prepare anyone for a meeting. Refresh.io automatically pulled data from sources like calendars, email, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn to provide users with insights and "small talk" ideas about the people they were meeting.
Wouldn't that be cool if everyone had a tool like that?... [Refresh] provided a digital dossier.
As CEO & Co-Founder, Bhavin led Refresh.io to build a popular free tool, particularly among professionals in Silicon Valley. While exploring enterprise monetization, the company attracted acquisition interest. Recognizing the challenges around data privacy and reliance on third-party APIs, Bhavin and his team decided to sell Refresh.io to LinkedIn in April 2015.
This idea of people data got quite messy... people wanted more control of their data. They wanted the right to be forgotten...
The successful exit further solidified Bhavin's reputation within the venture community.
Moveworks: The Vision for Enterprise AI Takes Flight 🚀
After the Refresh.io acquisition, Bhavin took time to ideate his next venture, knowing he wanted to leverage his experience quickly. He teamed up with three co-founders, each bringing unique expertise:
Vaibhav Nivargi: Serial entrepreneur (previously founded ClearStory Data).
Varun Singh: Chatbot expert and lead product manager from Meta (Facebook).
Jiang Chen: Machine learning and NLP expert from Google, Yahoo, and Airbnb, key in developing Google's "Web Answers" feature.
Together, they conducted extensive research, speaking with over 35 CIOs and IT leaders. They identified a universal pain point: getting internal support, whether for IT issues or HR queries, was slow and frustrating, often taking days to resolve even in the most innovative companies.
On average it would take three days to resolve a typical IT issue... Why does it take three days to get help?
Simultaneously, communication platforms like Slack and later Microsoft Teams were transforming internal collaboration. The insight? Combine cutting-edge conversational AI (leveraging Jiang's NLP expertise and Varun's chatbot experience) with deep enterprise system integration to provide instant, automated support right within the tools employees already use.
After about 35 conversations with CIOs, you kind of looked at each other and we said hey, I think there's something really big here... we can go and you know, start a company that uses NLP to answer and solve your very common and very routine IT issues.
Moveworks was founded in June 2016 with this mission: use AI to make work effortless by resolving employee issues instantly and automatically. The company emerged from stealth in 2019.
What Moveworks Built
Moveworks established itself as an enterprise-wide copilot, a conversational AI interface embedded within collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams and Slack, as well as web portals. It understands natural language requests from employees regarding IT support, HR policies, finance, facilities management, software access, hardware issues, payroll questions, and more.
Key aspects of the Moveworks platform:
Conversational Interface: Employees interact naturally via chat.
Proprietary AI: Uses advanced, custom-built Large Language Models (LLMs) and NLP trained specifically on enterprise language and workflows – not generic models.
Deep Integrations: Connects seamlessly with backend enterprise systems like ServiceNow, Workday, Salesforce, Okta, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and dozens more.
Automation: Doesn't just find answers, but takes action – provisioning software, unlocking accounts, ordering hardware, filing tickets intelligently when needed.
Proactive Support: Can reach out to employees regarding things like account lockouts or pending approvals.
Cross-Departmental: Started with IT support, expanded significantly into HR, finance, and facilities support, continually identifying new use cases based on employee demand.
Our product works on that premise... you say what's your problem... [we] come back with the best answer... or the best resource.
A key principle Bhavin stressed was the importance of choosing the right early customers – those with the right need, vision, and willingness to partner (and pay, as Moveworks never gave the product away for free).
The order of your customers can oftentimes make or break your company... You have to pick your customers well.
Gaining Momentum: Funding, Growth & Impact 📈
Before the acquisition, Moveworks demonstrated significant traction:
Funding: Raised just over $300 million in total capital. Key investors included Bain Capital Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, ICONIQ Growth, Tiger Global, Alkeon Capital, and others.
Valuation: Achieved a $2.1 billion valuation in its June 2021 funding round.
Resolution Rate: Autonomously resolved around 40% of all employee requests it handled, instantly, without human intervention. For mature customers, this could exceed 50%.
Customer Base: Served major global enterprises including Unilever, Instacart, Siemens, Toyota, Broadcom, DocuSign, Palo Alto Networks, Autodesk, Hearst, AppDynamics, Nutanix, and many more, typically focusing on companies with 1,000+ employees.
Team Size: Grew to over 500 employees globally, with offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Toronto, and Bengaluru, India.
Partnerships: Established a global partnership with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
Recognition: Named a "Best Place to Work" by multiple organizations, including Built In and Inc. Magazine.
Moveworks utilized a SaaS model, pricing based on the number of employees served, with contracts typically in the six-to-seven-figure range annually, reflecting the significant ROI delivered through automated support and increased productivity.
The Next Chapter: Acquisition by ServiceNow 🤝
In a major validation of Moveworks' vision and technology, ServiceNow announced its agreement to acquire Moveworks for $2.85 billion in April 2025. The deal, a mix of cash and stock, is expected to close in the second half of 2025.
This acquisition represents a significant step in ServiceNow's AI strategy, aiming to combine its own workflow automation strengths with Moveworks' sophisticated conversational AI assistant and enterprise search capabilities. ServiceNow highlighted the existing synergies, noting many mutual customers and tight product integrations already in place.
“With the acquisition of Moveworks, ServiceNow will take another giant leap forward in agentic AI-powered business transformation... Moveworks’ talented team and elegant AI-first experience, combined with ServiceNow’s powerful AI-driven workflow automation, will supercharge enterprise-wide AI adoption and deliver game-changing outcomes for employees and their customers.”
For Moveworks, joining ServiceNow offers a path to accelerated innovation and broader reach.
“Moveworks hides the complexity employees face at work by giving them an intuitive, engaging starting place to search and drive action across any enterprise system... Becoming part of ServiceNow presents an incredible opportunity to accelerate our innovation and deliver on our promise through their AI agent-fueled platform to redefine the user experience for employees and customer service teams.”
The acquisition comes as ServiceNow emphasizes its rapidly growing AI business, reporting nearly 1,000 AI customers and significant contract value driven by its AI offerings.
Continuing the Mission
Bhavin Shah's journey reflects a deep understanding of technological evolution and an unwavering focus on creating value. From his early days immersed in Silicon Valley's foundational tech scene to navigating the complexities of EdTech, gaming, consumer apps, and ultimately, pioneering enterprise AI, his career embodies adaptability and ambition.
While the acquisition marks a new chapter, the core mission remains: making work life simpler and more productive for millions. The combination of Moveworks' intuitive AI interface and ServiceNow's powerful platform promises to push the boundaries of what's possible in enterprise automation.
We've only scratched the surface... that's what keeps us motivated every day.
Bhavin Shah's story, culminating in this landmark acquisition, serves as a powerful example of identifying a critical need, building a world-class team, leveraging deep technology, and executing relentlessly towards a transformative vision.
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