Algolia Acquires Search.io, Combining Keyword and Vector Search
Algolia, the provider of a hybrid search engine combining keyword and vector search, is acquiring Search.io, whose flagship product, Neuralsearch, is a vector search engine that uses hashing technology on top of vectors to provide price performance at scale. Algolia will combine its keyword search and Search.io’s Neuralsearch into a single application programming interface (API).
Financial details of the acquisition have not been made public, but the addition of the vector search engine from Search.io is bound to disrupt the search market significantly, says Bernadette Nixon, CEO of Algolia. The combination of two search pioneers will enable Algolia to more effectively surface accurate and relevant results for users, whether they use specific keywords or natural human expressions. While many companies claim to offer some form of semantic search, none offer the capabilities of keyword search and vector-based semantic search in a single API cost effectively, or have the ability to scale, Algolia executives say.
Algolia’s acquisition of Search.io comes on the heels of a significant 2022 hiring stint, with the company creating more than 145 new jobs in Q2 alone, and doubling its employee population during the past year.
Enghouse Systems Acquires VoicePort
Canadian firm Enghouse Systems Ltd. has acquired the business assets of VoicePort LLC, the Rochester, New York-based provider of automated customer self-service software. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed, but Steve Sadler, chairman and CEO of Enghouse, says combining VoicePort’s solution with Enghouse’s own contact center as a service (CCaaS) product line will result in a more comprehensive and integrated solution.
Related Article: M&A and Funding: Sitel Group, Webhelp, Enghouse, and LeadSquared
VoicePort is known for product offerings designed to help enterprises in the circulation industry reduce costs, improve CX, and boost customer retention. The products, including inbound and outbound IVR and AI-powered chatbots with 2-way text messaging, are designed and orchestrated to be fully integrated, working seamlessly across organizations and their supporting resources and systems. In particular, VoicePort products improve the CX for media companies with subscription-based customers, its configurable software creating a seamless CX that can be used with any device.
Enghouse, headquartered in Markham, Ontario, in Canada, provides vertically focused enterprise software solutions on contact centers, video communications, healthcare, telecommunications, public safety, and the transit market. The company, which has no external debt, has a two-pronged growth strategy emphasizing internal growth and acquisitions that are funded through operating cash flows.
Stratifyd Raises $10 Million in Funding Round Led by Georgian
Stratifyd, the provider of a CX analytics and insights platform headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina, has secured a $10 million Series B funding led by Toronto, Canada-based investment firm and fintech company Georgian. Stratifyd will use the new funds to accelerate its product roadmap, hire key personnel, and expand its presence in emerging vertical markets.
To support Stratifyd’s high-growth objectives, the company recently added Eric Healy as CEO and Jake Darley as chief financial officer (CFO), with both bringing decades of experience working across enterprise software, marketing, and technology services organizations. In their respective roles, Healy will define and communicate Stratifyd’s vision and growth strategy for Stratifyd’s business, allowing the company to capitalize on opportunities as a leader in the CX software space. Darley will focus on creating operational efficiencies and financial best practices required to accelerate Stratifyd’s growth.
Founded in 2015, Charlotte-based Stratifyd puts the power of data science into the hands of business users through its experience analytics and insights platform. The company’s Smart AI experience and insights platform is designed to help today’s businesses that lack the time and resources to quickly uncover insights and drive value from experience, operational, and behavioral data. For its part, Georgian invests in high-growth companies across North America, bringing together software entrepreneurs, machine learning experts, experienced operators, and investment professionals.
OneSignal Raises $50 Million in Series C Funding
Customer engagement platform provider OneSignal has secured $500 million in Series C funding, bringing its total investment since the company’s founding in 2014 to more than $80 million. The current funding round is led by BAM Elevate, an investment division of Balyasny Asset Management, with participation from Nimble Partners and existing investors SignalFire and Zach Coelius. They will join other existing OneSignal investors, including Rakuten Ventures, Yes.vc, HubSpot, and Y Combinator.
The fresh capital infusion will be used to advance OneSignal’s omnichannel messaging and orchestration capabilities, enhance the company’s mobile data-driven email product, and deepen its geographic footprint in Europe, Asia, and Latin America.
Based in San Mateo, California, OneSignal’s founding team was originally part of a mobile game studio that reinvented itself to become OneSignal. The OneSignal team at that time had focused on building a customer engagement platform after experiencing the pain of building an in-house messaging system to stay connected with players. Since then, OneSignal has gained significant traction, sending in excess of 10 billion messages daily on behalf of more than 1.7 million users, including companies such as Zynga, USA Today, Bitcoin.com, Sweetgreen, Upwork, and Tribune.
Zendesk Urges Stockholders to Vote for Its Acquisition by a Consortium
Zendesk, the San Francisco-based provider of software products for customer support and customer communications, reiterated support for its acquisition by a consortium led by the firms Hellman & Friedman and Permira—and not by a rival bid from Light Street Capital Management.
Related Article: Zendesk to be Acquired for $10.2 Billion by Investor Group
In a statement, the Zendesk board says its acquisition by the consortium is the better deal, providing “superior, immediate, and certain value” to Zendesk stockholders. The consortium’s acquisition is an agreed all-cash transaction for all Zendesk shares, delivering $77.50 per share to all Zendesk stockholders—a 34% premium to the unaffected stock price. The consortium has also arranged for debt and equity financing commitments to back the transaction, which is not subject to any financing conditions.
In contrast, Zendesk says Light Street’s alternative proposal is “not credible,” and its attempt to delay the stockholder vote is not in the best interests of Zendesk stockholders. Light Street’s recapitalization proposal does not include any specific details on how it would approach the core value driver of its proposed recapitalization, contains problematic governance terms, and is not yet supported by any committed financing, the Zendesk board points out. The independent proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services adds that Light Street has admitted a lack of demonstrable experience with a campaign that involves a recapitalization, identifying director and CEO candidates, and executing an organizational turnaround.
For these reasons, the Zendesk board is unanimously recommending that stockholders vote for the consortium’s bid. To complete the consortium transaction, the merger agreement must be adopted by an affirmative vote of the holders of at least a majority of the outstanding shares of Zendesk common stock.
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.
