SINGAPORE - United States online customer service start-up Zendesk on Thursday opened its new Asia-Pacific commercial headquarters in Commonwealth Drive.

The commercial headquarters, which will serve as the base for the company's regional marketing and sales, will also house home-grown live chat start-up Zopim.

Zendesk had acquired Zopim last year for about US$30 million (S$38 million) to expand its live chat capabilities and enable clients to engage proactively with their customers.

"Zopim has become such a core part of Zendesk over the past year and paved the way for us to make Singapore a significant regional home for our combined operations," said Zendesk founder, chief executive and chairman Mikkel Svane.

"Singapore is the perfect gateway to the entire Asia-Pacific region for us. It serves as the regional home to so many global companies and a hotbed of emerging local businesses and startups."

Within the region, Zendesk and Zopim have more than 6,700 clients, including Singapore-based companies such as Eu Yan Sang International, Lazada Group and Zalora.

With the new office - which, at 671 square metres, is almost triple the space of Zopim's previous premises - Zendesk will also double its staff strength to about 80.

As part of the office opening, Zendesk and Zopim also committed $100,000 and at least 400 hours of volunteer service to local community and non-profit organisations.

They will focus on charities that promote workforce development and technical litercy, improve education and professional development for the underserved youth, provide supportive services to senior, and promote gender equality in the workplace.