Unifonic announces acquisition of Sestek

UNIFONIC ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF SESTEK, FURTHER DIVERSIFYING ITS OFFERINGS AND EXPANDING ITS GEOGRAPHICAL REACH AS A LEADING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT COMPANY

The acquisition provides Unifonic with immediate access to Sestek’s suite of cutting-edge “Conversational AI and Analytics” solutions, and a strong base of existing clients and partners. Sestek’s offerings complement Unifonic and the combined capabilities will result in a more holistic customer engagement offering to their global customers.

Unifonic, a leading Communications Platform as a Service (CPaaS) provider in the Middle East, announced today the acquisition of Sestek, an R&D-focused AI-powered conversational automation company. The transaction was closed on the 12th of October 2022.

Founded in 2000 with the goal of revolutionizing speech-tech, Sestek has developed a suite of AI-powered conversational solutions that empower companies to deliver a superior customer experience. Sestek’s current customers include large enterprises (including banks and financial services), global contact center technology and business process outsourcing providers. The company has over 140 employees which includes a strong team of 100+ R&D and technology specialists. Unifonic and Sestek share a commitment to becoming the preferred customer engagement partner for leading businesses globally. Sestek is also a proud Gartner-recognized speech-tech vendor.

Ahmed Hamdan, Unifonic Co-Founder and CEO, said, “Unifonic and Sestek share an ongoing commitment to disrupting the fast-growing and evolving customer engagement space. Sestek’s omnichannel and AI-powered conversational automation solutions significantly enhance Unifonic’s product portfolio. With our combined technology and go-to-market capabilities, we will continue to deliver on our growth objectives, while effectively leveraging Sestek’s capabilities across our clientele and strategic markets.”

“We are excited to embark on this next phase of growth alongside the Unifonic team,” said Prof. Levent Arslan, Sestek Founder and CEO. “We have been impressed by Unifonic’s ability to rapidly scale its business while continuing to provide best-in-class, transformative CPaaS solutions for customers. We look forward to leveraging the combined capabilities of our platforms and go-to-market capabilities to provide enterprise-grade, omnichannel customer engagement technology solutions to a global clientele. Unifonic’s recognition as one of the emerging markets’ CPaaS leaders, backed by marquee investors including Softbank and Sanabil (a PIF company), will accelerate our market presence and growth.”

Stefan Carlsson, Unifonic CFO, said, “The acquisition of Sestek is a very logical and exciting next step in our growth trajectory, as we continue to expand our suite of customer engagement products and geographic reach. Sestek has delivered a strong financial performance with solid revenue and gross profit growth and the transaction is significantly value accretive to Unifonic’s margins and balance sheet. We look forward to capitalizing on the combined market opportunities provided by this partnership.

ABOUT UNIFONIC

Unifonic is a customer engagement platform that enables organizations to delight customers with remarkable omnichannel experiences. It streamlines conversations at every touchpoint throughout the customer journey by unifying communication channels, messaging apps, and chatbots.

Unifonic’s solutions integrate customer communication channels, including text, voice, messaging and web, into a single platform that enables companies to create stronger customer relationships. As newer channels emerge and user preferences change over time, organizations rely on Unifonic to maximize customer engagement and optimize communication returns on investment. 

From SMS for online banking to WhatsApp customer service support, Unifonic empowers organizations to transform their customer experiences while allowing them to focus on core business activities without maintaining costly communication infrastructures.

Unifonic connects local enterprises with their customers. This includes leading banks, financial institutions and government entities throughout the region, as well as healthcare providers, retail and e-commerce, and transport and logistics providers worldwide.

With proven expertise in emerging markets since 2006, Unifonic is committed to delivering excellence handling 10+ billion annual transactions for millions of recipients in over 160 countries, backed by a local corporate presence in five countries and a dedicated team of 300+ professionals serving clients 24/7.

For additional information about Unifonic, please visit https://www.unifonic.com/.

ABOUT SESTEK

Sestek is a global technology company working on conversational AI and analytics solutions for customer service since 2000. Sestek helps organizations become data-driven, increase efficiency, and provide better experiences for their customers. Sestek products are developed by an R&D team of 100+ engineers, and they are built on voice recognition, natural language processing, and voice biometrics technologies. 

Over the last two decades, Sestek has been developing Conversational AI, Conversational Analytics and Conversational Biometrics solutions, helping over 200 brands in 16 countries improve the experience they present to their customers. 

Recently, Sestek launched the Knovvu brand as its new-generation conversational automation platform. All Sestek products are now presented under the Knovvu brand name.

Learn more about Sestek - https://www.sestek.com/

Learn more about Knovvu - https://knovvu.com/