Acquisition adds significant expertise in multilingual capability and global reach
yoummday GmbH, the technology platform that matches independent entrepreneurs with companies needing customer service talent, has acquired Prague-based ICON Communication Centres s.r.o. (ICON), a multilingual business process outsourcer (BPO), from ESPIRA Investments s.r.o. (ESPIRA) and ICON’s executive management team. The purchase of ICON is yoummday’s first acquisition in its invigorated growth strategy since receiving a €30M funding round from Armira Growth and Project A in February 2022. yoummday’s purchase of ICON accelerates the company’s international expansion as it seeks to disrupt traditional BPO and contact centre models.
yoummday offers a work@home operating system (w@h OS) which empowers independent entrepreneurs with the ability to choose when and where they work across a variety of customer experience functions for a brand they desire. As a result, companies of all sizes in any sector can take advantage of an engaged and scalable workforce contributing a wide range of skills and languages to the yoummday talent pool.
“The acquisition of ICON furnishes the opportunity to strengthen our growth strategy, which is predicated on integrating traditional BPO operators into our own proprietary marketplace platform. We look forward to working with the ICON team and weaving their unique capabilities into the yoummday brand”, emphasized Dr. Klaus Harisch, CEO and Founder of yoummday.
yoummday customers can select from over 6,000 qualified entrepreneurs when building their workforce and may decide upon either a self-managed or yoummday-managed deployment of services. Within its platform, yoummday takes care of quality assurance, the onboarding of new independent entrepreneurs, and additional training.
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Acquisition adds significant expertise in multilingual capability and global reach
ICON has provided international companies with outsourced customer operations functions since 2003. It brings significant benefits and expertise to yoummday with respect to native-level multilingual capability, global reach, and B2B customer experiences. Following yoummday’s proven success within the EU, its penetration into both the US and UK markets is now expedited thanks to ICON’s existing operations.
ICON was co-founded by CEO Helen Hickin after identifying Prague as an ideal nearshore location due to its geography, advantageous price point, and the depth of multilingual talent available. It is capable of providing complex customer interactions in 30 languages and counts several of the world’s most well-known travel, telecommunication, and education technology companies within its client portfolio.
“We identified a gap in the market and opened the first outsourced BPO in Prague. Twenty years later, the BPO sector has changed significantly; through innovative technology, yoummday has found an exciting new way for companies to outsource operations with greater flexibility. It’s the right time for ICON’s next evolution and yoummday is perfectly positioned to ensure ICON’s clients continue to benefit from innovative delivery solutions”, states Helen Hickin, CEO, ICON Communication Centres.
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ICON’s C-Team will continue to operate alongside yoummday, and the ICON brand will remain in operation for the foreseeable future. yoummday purchased 100% of ICON from CEE Communications s.r.o. of which CEE-based private equity firm ESPIRA, is the majority shareholder. ESPIRA and ICON’s executive management team acquired ICON in 2019 in a transaction that aligned with the private equity firm’s diversity-oriented investment focus.
Emilia Mamajova, ESPIRA’s Co-Founding Partner, stated, “Our goal together with the management team was to develop ICON on the international arena as a successful independent provider of high value-added services – and over the past three years Helen and her team have succeeded in reaching this objective. We congratulate them and wish the team continued success in their partnership with yoummday.”
yoummday’s acquisition of ICON Communication Centres was concluded on the 20th of July 2022, and all parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.