Genesys acquires Barry O’Sullivan’s AI business Altocloud

28 Feb 2018

From left: Stephen Coney, SVP of engineering at Genesys, with Barry O’Sullivan, co-founder and CEO of Altocloud. Image: Genesys

Genesys acquires the AI powerhouse that is Altocloud.

Silicon Valley software player Genesys has acquired Altocloud, the Galway- and California-based AI customer conversion platform founded by Irish man Barry O’Sullivan.

The acquisition price has not been disclosed.

Prior to the acquisition, Altocloud had raised around $3m from investors that include Delta Partners, Digicel Group and ACT Venture Capital.

‘We can extend the reach of our revolutionary journey management technology even further to help thousands of companies across the globe through hyper-personalised, digitally connected experiences’
– BARRY O’SULLIVAN

Genesys is a 28-year-old Silicon Valley tech firm that employs more than 3,000 people.

Return of the native

Cork native O’Sullivan would be familiar to the public in Ireland as an exacting judge on Dragons’ Den.

He founded Altocloud after a successful career in Silicon Valley.

As a senior vice-president at Cisco, he helped mastermind the acquisitions of tech companies such as WebEx, for $3.2bn, and has been an active angel investor in start-ups in Ireland and California.

At Cisco, O’Sullivan served as senior vice-president in charge of voice products, a $2bn-a-year business. He has also been a member of the strategy group of Padmasree Warrior, CTO of Cisco. O’Sullivan is also one of the earliest members of the Irish Technology Leadership Group, established by Irish and Irish-American executives in Silicon Valley, Hollywood and on Wall Street, who decided to it was time Ireland tapped into its diaspora community to foster economic growth.

Altocloud’s technology combines machine learning with real-time communications in a software-as-a-service platform for businesses.

Genesys said that the acquisition of Altocloud will strengthen its capability in AI and machine learning to help organisations to deliver highly responsive and predictive customer experiences from sale to services.

“The acquisition of Altocloud bolsters our ability to optimise and connect the entire customer journey to ensure the best business outcomes,” said Paul Segre, chief executive officer of Genesys.

“We are particularly excited by applications like Altocloud, which give organisations a live look into the behaviour of consumers and their potential as customers. By empowering employees with this depth of actionable insight, organisations are better positioned than ever to convert shoppers into buyers, leads into customers and consumers into brand advocates.”

The Altocloud platform has helped firms reduce cost per lead by 62pc, cost per chat by 72pc, engagement rates rise 80pc and card abandonment rates fall by 30pc.

“We built Altocloud because we saw a more dynamic way to drive better business results by taking advantage of the power and potential of AI,” said O’Sullivan.

“We are excited to join a proven customer experience innovator and AI leader like Genesys, so we can extend the reach of our revolutionary journey management technology even further to help thousands of companies across the globe through hyper-personalised, digitally connected experiences.”

Updated, 10.34am and 1.53pm, 28 February 2018: Previous versions of this article misidentified Stephen Coney in the main image (left). We have updated the image caption to rectify this error and we apologise for any confusion caused.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com