Capacity, the St. Louis-based artificial intelligence software company led by serial entrepreneur and former Answers CEO David Karandish, for the second time this year has acquired another local startup.
Capacity said Wednesday it has acquired St. Louis social media software Denim Social, while also announcing a deal to purchase San Diego-based speech and voice technology provider LumenVox. The deals mark a recent acquisition spree for Capacity, which in January announced its purchase of St. Louis-based text messaging software startup Textel.
Financial terms of the acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox were not disclosed. Capacity, with its headquarters at 6665 Delmar Blvd. in the Delmar Loop, says the deals bring its headcount to include more than 100 employees.
Founded in 2017 by Karandish and fellow entrepreneur Chris Sims, Capacity has developed an AI-enabled technology that’s designed to capture and collect an organization’s information from various sources to automate support for customer and employees. The company said the acquisitions of Denim Social and LumenVox add new channels for automation, creating an “all-in-one solution for support and customer experience.” Capacity has raised more than $60 million from investors since its launch, including a $38 million Series C financing closed in 2022.
Karandish said the acquisitions round out the five key channels in which Capacity believes customers can automate support for customers. They include web, email, text messaging, voice and social media.
“If you cover those five, that’s pretty much every way you’re going to be able to interact with the customer,” he said.
In Denim Social, Capacity adds a company that offers social media management and marketing software to organizations in the banking, insurance, mortgage and wealth management fields. Denim Social formed in April 2020 with the merger of St. Louis startup Gremlin Social and Des Moines, Iowa-based Denim.
“Social media is a must-have tool for today’s modern seller,” said Doug Wilber, CEO of Denim Social, said in a statement. “Combining Capacity’s AI-powered automations with Denim Social’s campaign tools will enable users across industries to more effectively stay engaged on social media and focus their time on delivering authentic interactions."
Wilber has become chief strategy officer at Capacity, the company said. Denim Social has sought growth in recent years, raising $5 million in 2021 from investors in a funding round it said then valued it at $30 million.
LumenVox provides speech and voice technology that has been used by contact centers and is designed to help customers interact with customers, Karandish said. Its technology includes automatic speech recognition, call progress analysis, voice biometrics and text-to-speech tools.
“The right voice technology can save teams countless support hours. Marrying LumenVox’s technology with the Capacity platform ensures voice is a seamless part of the omnichannel experience,” said Nigel Quinnin, CEO of LumenVox.
Capacity said Quinnin will oversee its voice operations.
The recent acquisition by Capacity has rapidly expanded the capabilities of its product offering. The company was nearly completely focused on providing automation support through the web about 10 months ago, Karandish said. With its expansion, the company said in a news release it now expects its technology on a monthly basis will analyze 300 million calls, send 10 million text messages and account for 500,000 social media posts. Karandish said the company’s “all-in-one” approach will allow customers to streamline their operations around customer support and engagement.
“We want to be in a position where you can manage all of your customer experience and all of your team experience through Capacity and we’re already starting to see wins where clients are like ‘oh, I can add this on top of here and these things are already integrated. I don’t have to start duct taping all this together,’” he said.
