EXCLUSIVE: Skibbereen’s Spearline sold to US firm for undisclosed sum

SKIBBEREEN-based technology firm Spearline has been sold to Silicon Valley firm Cyara for an undisclosed sum.

The West Cork firm, which was founded in 2003 by university friends Kevin Buckley and Matthew Lawlor, tests communications tools, including phone lines, for global businesses.

The deal, according to the US firm, will expand Cyara’s solutions for artificial intelligence (AI) and ‘cloud contact centre migration assurance’.

Cyara works in the global customer experience (CX) area, and this will now enable it to expand its in-country dialling and internet real-time communications (RTC) testing and monitoring capabilities.

‘We are thrilled to join forces with Cyara to bring unmatched excellence to CX assurance,’ said Kevin Buckley, Spearline co-founder and chief executive.

‘This strategic move enables us to help more customers transform their CX, making every interaction flawless. We are excited for Spearline to become part of this combined powerhouse and look forward to the positive impact it will have on our customers.’

‘The strategic acquisition of Spearline solidifies Cyara’s position as the global leader in CX testing and assurance,’ said a spokesperson.

The deal also pairs Cyara’s leadership in contact centre and chatbot assurance with Spearline’s global dialling and RTC capabilities to address the needs of enterprises, transforming their communications strategies to support what the firms describe as ‘the modern remote workforce’.

‘Spearline brings the most comprehensive global in-country dialling solution that provides mobile and landline dialling assurance in over 80 countries,’ said the spokesperson. Cyara’s purchase of Spearline is part of its strategy to benefit from the potential of the rush to use chatbots and ‘conversational’ AI.

Last year Cyara acquired chatbot support firm Botium, which helped the Silicon Valley firm to better serve the emerging large language model (LLM)-based technology being used by the likes of ChatGPT, Google Bard and Bing Search.

The global move, in recent years, to cloud solutions that support voice, video and address the needs of remote workers has benefited the growth of Spearline in West Cork.

‘To support a remote workforce, organisations are moving their communications platforms to the cloud,’ said Alok Kulkarni, Cyara chief executive. ‘While this eliminates the complexity of managing the hardware, there is new complexity in testing advanced features that come with these platforms, like AI, video and omnichannel. Cyara offers the only CX assurance platform that can address the complexity of these modern communications systems today, and in the future.’

Spearline’s flagship solution, Voice Assure, helps global companies in industries like technology, travel and banking, to ensure their customers can reach them across the globe. Voice Assure places in-country calls to toll and toll-free numbers and measures the audio quality and connectivity of those calls, which enables enterprises to replicate customers’ experiences locally and analyse key performance metrics such as connectivity, audio quality, and caller ID.

In 2021, Spearline acquired testRTC to add real-time communications monitoring to their portfolio, and most recently bolstered that investment with the acquisition of the Callstats.io business line.

In announcing the sale, Spearline acknowledged the support of Enterprise Ireland over the past number of years, along with those who played a role in finalising the transaction with Cyara, including Cork-based RDJ solicitors and finance and tax advisors Deloitte.