Capacity, the St. Louis-based artificial intelligence software company led by serial entrepreneur and former Answers CEO David Karandish, has acquired two businesses that it says expands it capabilities to serve contact centers.
The company said Wednesday that it has acquired CereProc and SmartAction, which will help the company grow its voice and virtual agent solutions, according to a release.
Shareholders of Cereproc and SmartAction, both privately held, have become owners at Capacity, a spokesperson said. Terms of the deals weren't disclosed.
Following the acquisitions, Capacity, which has its headquarters at 6665 Delmar Blvd. in the Delmar Loop, will have a total headcount of over 150 working in locations around the world, with nearly 70 in the St. Louis area, according to the spokesperson.
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.
Edinburgh, Scotland-based CereProc, whose technology creates scalable voices, is best-known for its speech synthesis system that allows client companies to create synthesized voice for use in applications, web and multimedia, officials said.
SmartAction, based in Fort Worth, Texas, provides AI-powered virtual agents to contact centers through its NOVA platform, which provides omnichannel support, personalized interactions and follow-up capabilities.
“Customer expectations are rising and that means support teams need better tools to improve customer experiences and free up their agents to solve higher-level challenges,” Karandish, Capacity's CEO, said in a release. “CereProc’s text-to-speech technology allows us to build on the industry-leading voice experiences we are already delivering to our customers. And with SmartAction’s innovative NOVA platform, Capacity customers will now be able to seamlessly integrate AI-powered voice agents into their customer experience workflows.”
“The right speech tools are essential for Contact Center efficiency. CereWave AI, our advanced synthetic speech engine, is easily embeddable and customizable with a voice of a customer’s choice, making it an ideal enhancement in a complete solution like Capacity,” Paul Welham, CereProc CEO, said in a statement.
Welham will continue to lead Cereproc as a member of the Capacity's executive leadership after the acquisition, according to the release.
Kyle Johnson, SmartAction's former CEO, has left the company for a position with software developer Canto, according to his LinkedIn profile. SmartAction will be operated by Capacity, a spokesperson said.
Capacity posted over 80% year-over-year growth in annual recurring revenue (ARR), led by wins in financial services and contact center industries, according to the release. Officials declined to share financial information.
Capacity has raised more than $60 million from investors since its launch, including a $38 million Series C financing closed in 2022.
In August last year, Capacity announced it had acquired St. Louis social media software Denim Social, while also announcing a deal to purchase San Diego-based speech and voice technology provider LumenVox. Those followed Capacity's purchase in January 2023 of St. Louis-based text messaging software startup Textel.
Capacity co-founders Karandish and Sims were executives and investors in Answers Corp., a question-and-answers website that reached a $900 million exit in 2014, as well as investors in other local startups, including St. Louis education startup Nerdy prior to its IPO.
