Medallia Buys Speech-to-Text Specialist Voci

California-based customer experience management specialist Medallia has agreed to acquire real-time speech-to-text platform Voci Technologies for around $59m in cash.

Medallia announced itself as a major player in the CX management sector with a successful debut on the New York Stock Exchange last July, raising $326m from its IPO; and in the last year has acquired Tel Aviv-based behavioral analytics platform Cooladata, for an undisclosed sum, and recently video feedback platform LivingLens, for around $26m in cash.

Pittsburgh-based Voci's technology analyzes customer phone call contacts in real time using AI and deep learning capabilities, backed by experienced speech scientists, tracking emotion and sentiment, gender and voice biometric identity. It also helps organizations stay in compliance and helps protect sensitive personal information for its partners and their customers. The platform is enterprise ready, operates at scale and has processed over 2 billion minutes of speech to date.

The buy, which is expected to close next month and still subject to customary closing conditions, will add Voci's capabilities to Medallia's SaaS platform, the Medallia Experience Cloud, to give 'a rich, single view of the customer'.

Medallia says companies engage with customers by phone more than any other channel, making the data a gold mine. According to President and CEO Leslie Stretch, 'Voci transcribes 100% of live and recorded calls into text that can be analyzed quickly to determine customer satisfaction, adding a powerful set of signals to the Medallia Experience Cloud'. Mike Coney (pictured), CEO of Voci comments: 'Our whole company is delighted to be joining forces with experience management leader Medallia... The consolidation of all contact center signals with video, survey and other critical feedback is a game changer for the industry'.

Web sites: www.medallia.com and www.vocitec.com .