Four mergers and acquisitions (M&A) stories and one on funding make up this new roundup. Regardless of the nature of the acquisition or funding taking place, however, the focal point of activity, as it turns out, remains the same: people. Two providers merge to optimize the employee experience (EX) at the workplace, while two other companies join forces to boost conversational engagement capabilities with the customer. In a third case, two HR specialist firms combine to match projects to the appropriate talent, while the final example sees two companies combine CX expertise with process mining to figure out why processes fail or bog down on people. The lone funding story relates to fresh capital being raised to strengthen data governance and uphold privacy demands of none other than—you guessed it—everyday people. Details follow below.
HqO Acquires Leesman, Brings 1 Million Data Points
HqO, the Canadian provider of a platform to create workplace environments optimal to employees, is acquiring Leesman, the London-based firm specializing in the measurement and analysis of EX at the workplace. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the transaction will enable HqO to continue expanding its critical service offerings of enhancing the office and workplace experience.
Used by 57% of the Fortune 100 and active in 25 countries, HqO’s Workplace Experience Platform helps companies and commercial property teams support workplaces by providing premier experience services to help employees thrive. For its part, Leesman has enabled 6,410 organizations in more than 100 countries to capture employee sentiment on work environments through a series of assessment tools. By rating the ability of organizations to support employees in the home and in the office, companies can benchmark employee performance against a database on workplace experience compiled by Leesman. The database is also known as the Leesman Index, which has become the world’s largest repository of workplace experience data containing the records of nearly 1 million office respondents and close to 300,000 home-based respondents.
The acquisition will enable Leesman’s extensive workplace experience data to augment HqO’s existing workplace experience offerings. Customers will have access to Leesman’s survey data offering deep insights and specificity into what employees like, dislike, or wish to see more of, which HqO’s technology and services will help implement in the complementary partnership.
ServiceNow Procures Hitch Works to Help Companies Match People to Projects
ServiceNow, the Santa Clara, California-based software company and provider of a cloud computing platform for companies to manage enterprise digital workflows, has signed an agreement to acquire Hitch Works, the provider of a web-based skills-mapping and intelligence platform headquartered in Seattle.
Financial terms of the transaction are not known, but the acquisition is expected to add a new layer of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered skills insights to the Now platform of ServiceNow. The addition will help customers address talent gaps in their company employee base by linking employee learning and development to workforce planning so that companies are able to match people to projects more effectively.
Hitch capabilities will be built into the ServiceNow platform beginning with employee workflow solutions, in which the ability of Hitch to boost employee engagement and productivity across the enterprise is described by ServiceNow to be a natural extension of the Now platform. ServiceNow also expects to later expand the features of Hitch across the ServiceNow portfolio for customer service, IT, and developers.
The acquisition is expected to close by the end of second quarter.
Gupshup Snaps Up India’s OneDirect to Boost Conversational Engagement
Gupshup, the Cupertino, California-based provider of a conversational messaging platform, has acquired OneDirect, a CX and digital transformation company headquartered in Bengaluru, India.
The acquisition is said to strengthen Gupshup’s suite of conversational solutions that enable omnichannel conversational engagement through the integration of OneDirect’s platform to manage customer conversations across multiple channels. Businesses can then leverage Gupshup’s no-code and low-code chatbot automation tools to programmatically deflect incoming tickets, freeing up agents to handle more complex queries. Agents can also use the OneDirect dashboard to obtain a 360-degree view of customers for service, engagement, or upselling.
“Gupshup’s advanced AI capabilities combined with OneDirect’s robust customer service and engagement platform will provide businesses the ability to reinvent customer experience,” says Vishrut Chalsani, co-founder and CEO of OneDirect.
Pega Announces Everflow Acquisition for Process Mining
Pegasystems, the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based developer of customer relationship management (CRM) and business process management (BPM) software, has acquired for an undisclosed amount Everflow, the provider of a process mining software with big data capabilities for analyzing business operations, with co-headquarters in San Francisco and Campinas, Brazil.
The acquisition will help Pega—the shortened name by which the company is often referred to—deliver a hyperautomation solution, combining Pega’s AI-powered decisioning and workflow automation capabilities with Everflow’s software for uncovering and fixing hidden process inefficiencies that could bog down organizational operations.
Everflow process mining helps companies analyze and optimize their customer and employee-related processes, automatically modeling real-world mechanisms based on organizational activity logs. The software then analyzes where processes break down in the field and suggests ways of improvement. When combined with Pega’s platform, the integrated solution can help continuously monitor processes across the enterprise, identify process concerns or deviations when they arise, and even fix issues on the fly.
The process mining capability will be offered as an add-on capability to Pega Process AI, a set of Pega platform capabilities introduced last year.
Immuta Raises $100 Million in Fresh Funding
Immuta, the Boston-headquartered provider of a data governance platform, recently secured $100 million in a Series E round that brings the company’s total funding to date to $267 million.
The latest funding round is led by NightDragon, the San Francisco-based venture capital firm investing in growth and late-stage companies, and includes new investor Snowflake Ventures, along with participation from existing investors Dell Technologies Capital, DFJ Growth, IAG, Intel Capital, March Capital, StepStone, Ten Eleven Ventures, and Wipro Ventures.
The new infusion of capital builds upon Immuta’s record growth in 2021, which included a 100% increase in the company’s commercial annual recurring revenue (ARR), the doubling of its customer base, and the continuing expansion of its global footprint into EMEA, Asia-Pacific, and Japan.
The new investment funds will be used by Immuta to accelerate secure data access across cloud platforms to meet growing data security and privacy demands, with the company able to automate access to data by discovering, securing, and monitoring data on any cloud service. The new money will also be earmarked by Immuta to speed up product innovation, expand various internal teams in response to growing global demand, and deepen strategic partnerships within the cloud data ecosystem.
Author Information
Alex is responsible for writing about trends and changes that are impacting the customer experience market. He had served as Principal Editor at Village Intelligence, a Los Angeles-based consultancy on technology impacting healthcare and healthcare-related industries. Alex was also Associate Director for Content Management at Omdia and Informa Tech, where he produced white papers, executive summaries, market insights, blogs, and other key content assets. His areas of coverage spanned the sectors grouped under the technology vertical, including semiconductors, smart technologies, enterprise & IT, media, displays, mobile, power, healthcare, China research, industrial and IoT, automotive, and transformative technologies.
At IHS Markit, he was Managing Editor of the company’s flagship IHS Quarterly, covering aerospace & defense, economics & country risk, chemicals, oil & gas, and other IHS verticals. He was Principal Editor of analyst output at iSuppli Corp. and Managing Editor of Market Watch, a fortnightly newsletter highlighting significant analyst report findings for pitching to the media. He started his career in writing as an Editor-Reporter for The Associated Press.
