Audax Private Equity Portfolio Company, Astute, Inc. Acquires Socialbakers

Industry leaders in customer engagement and social media management come together to deliver end-to-end customer experience management and intelligence across channels and along all stages of the customer journey, from first touchpoint through post-purchase care

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Audax Private Equity (“Audax”) announced that its portfolio company, Astute, Inc. (“Astute”), a leading provider of SaaS-based, omnichannel consumer engagement software, has acquired Socialbakers, a.s (“Socialbakers”). This is the second acquisition Astute has completed under Audax ownership, following the purchase of iperceptions in July 2020.

Headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, Socialbakers is a leading global provider of social media management and digital marketing software. Socialbakers' AI-powered social media marketing suite helps brands and businesses monitor, engage, and grow their customer base, ensuring their social media investments deliver measurable business outcomes.

“Astute has consistently grown its suite of customer experience management offerings since Audax’ investment in 2019,” said Mark Zablan, CEO of Astute. “Building on 25 years of experience in customer engagement and care, Astute has expanded its product portfolio to include AI-powered CRM tools, social care, digital self-service, email RPA, chatbots, and Voice of the Customer (“VoC”) tools, all supported by an underlying knowledge base and analytics platform. The combination with Socialbakers will create an integrated platform that provides a 360-degree view of the customer across channels, allowing global brands to manage customer experience from the first customer touchpoint all the way through post-purchase care. Socialbakers’ expertise in social media management and related analytics will further enrich the combined end-to-end solution, benefitting both Astute and Socialbakers customers.”

"Consumer demand for outstanding omnichannel customer experience means brands are looking for a unified platform to manage the customer journey across all touchpoints,” said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CEO at Socialbakers. “We are very excited to be joining with Astute to provide brands with an integrated customer experience platform, enabling them to deliver a best-in-class experience across the entire omnichannel customer journey. Today, many brands are already leveraging both the Socialbakers and Astute platforms, and we are looking forward to expanding our combined offering to brands and businesses around the world.”

The acquisition also serves to strengthen Astute’s presence globally. The existing Socialbakers platform will be maintained and developed for further integration with the Astute platform. Astute and Socialbakers will have a combined team of over 600 employees across more than 16 global locations, serving almost 3,000 customers in over 100 countries.

ABOUT ASTUTE

Astute is a full-service end-to-end customer engagement platform for the world’s largest global brands. Astute unifies all first-party data across the customer journey, offering AI-driven customer self-service, agent desktop CRM, social media management, and powerful Voice of the Customer tracking and analytics. No matter how customers choose to engage, Astute elevates the interaction while capturing invaluable first-party data to improve the journey. Winner of the 2020 Stevie® Award for Most Innovative Tech Company and CUSTOMER Magazine’s 2020 Contact Center Technology Award, Astute’s commitment to innovating the customer experience is well-recognized in the market. Learn more at astutesolutions.com.

ABOUT SOCIALBAKERS

Socialbakers is a trusted social media management partner to thousands of enterprise and mid-market brands. Leveraging one of the largest social media data-sets in the industry, Socialbakers’ AI-powered social media marketing suite helps brands large and small ensure their investment in social media is delivering measurable business outcomes. With over 2,500 clients across 100 countries, Socialbakers is a leading social media management platform, tracking 10 million social profiles across all major social platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, and VK.com. Socialbakers has been a Facebook Marketing Partner since 2011, a Pinterest Marketing Partner since 2017 and a LinkedIn Marketing Partner since 2017. For more information, visit www.socialbakers.com.

ABOUT AUDAX PRIVATE EQUITY

Audax Group is a leading alternative investment manager with offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco. Since its founding in 1999, the firm has raised over $26 billion in capital across its Private Equity and Private Debt businesses. Audax Private Equity has invested over $6 billion in more than 130 platforms and 875 add-on companies, and is currently investing out of its $3.5 billion, sixth private equity fund. Through its disciplined Buy & Build approach, Audax seeks to help platform companies execute add-on acquisitions that fuel revenue growth, optimize operations, and significantly increase equity value. With more than 250 employees and over 100 investment professionals, the firm is a leading capital partner for North American middle market companies. For more information, visit the Audax Group website www.audaxgroup.com.