Call tracking specialists dial up growth with US acquisition

Notting Hill-headquartered iovox extends presence in the USA after acquiring a portfolio of customers from call tracking specialist CallSource. The acquisition assists expansion in the US market with support from Shawbrook Bank. The addition of CallSource’s marketplaces division will result in a 30 per cent revenue jump.

The business says that CallSource’s portfolio of automotive, real estate and hospitality marketplace accounts complements its own stable of international clients, which includes national car dealership Auto Trader UK, France’s LaCentrale, property listings firms such as the UK’s Zoopla, Italy’s Subito, and Australia’s REA Group among many others.

Iovox was established in 2007 by husband-and-wife duo Ryan and Belinda Gallagher in the Scottish countryside. They set out to make calls more valuable to corporations, and developed software to track inbound and outbound calls to support marketing activities including lead generation, customer conversion and CRM management.

With its main office in London, the company has additional offices in Paris, San Francisco, and Sydney where its staff manage over 150 accounts across 100 countries. Its latest expansion follows the acquisition of French-provider WannaSpeak in 2019, which strengthened iovox’s leading position in the European call tracking market.

The company turned to Shawbrook to secure £5m venture debt facility to assist with funding the deal, furthering the US expansion.

Ryan Gallagher, co-Founder and CEO at iovox, said, “The marketplace customers of CallSource are very similar to our EMEA and APAC customers, so they are a great fit for our continued expansion in the Americas. We look forward to learning more about each account and making sure they have access to all the latest innovations to help them grow their business.

“The services we offer are designed for any company looking to optimise conversion by phone and learn what’s happening on every call and how they can improve performance. Businesses tend to emphasize the evaluation of web data, but phone data is even more important because the buying intent is much higher when someone makes a call than when just browsing a site.

“When considering our financing options, Shawbrook differentiated itself from the outset, from their speed and responsiveness right through to their flexibility to adapt to our needs, allowing us to focus on integrating this acquisition successfully.”

Ciaran Flanagan at Shawbrook Bank, said, “We’ve been impressed by the management team at iovox who have deep experience in this sector. iovox has a strong track record for growth, a well invested platform and a proven ability to successfully integrate international acquisitions.

“This history created a compelling case to back the firm and to develop a unique funding solution to meet iovox’s needs and to support its continued expansion in the US.”