Tag: Toku

Singapore – Cloud communications provider Toku has announced its intent to acquire Singapore-based AI-powered conversational customer experience (CX) platform, AiChat, to support its vision of delivering a 360-degree CX platform tailored for APAC organisations.

Through this acquisition, Toku will gain AiChat’s industry-leading chatbot and messaging capabilities. When combined with Toku’s existing voice, messaging, and cloud communications suite, customers will benefit from a single, integrated platform to power their entire CX journey.

Once finalised, the acquisition will bolster Toku’s standing as a full-service CX technology firm, empowering the company to realise its goal of delivering seamless, personalised customer engagement across all channels.

The enhanced capabilities and synergies resulting from the collaboration between the two companies are projected to have an anticipated 50% revenue growth within the first twelve months.

By joining forces, Toku and AiChat will offer enterprise clients a single view of their customers with insights drawn from conversations across all channels, faster resolution of issues through seamless hand-offs between chat, voice, and other channels, and more personalised experiences tailored to individual customers at every step of their journey.

Besides integrating into Toku’s offerings, AiChat will maintain its status as a standalone product, catering to customers who favour a single, streamlined solution that delivers the best-in-class AI-powered conversational experience.

Toku’s acquisition of AiChat will mark the company’s second M&A activity in two consecutive years, following its acquisition of customer engagement firm Activeo Singapore in 2023, a strong testament to its solid business fundamentals and consistent upward growth trajectory.

As of now, no financial terms of the acquisition have been disclosed. However, the transaction is expected to close by Q3 2024.

AiChat employees will begin moving into Toku’s offices as part of the integration, bringing the company’s total strength to 160 dedicated CX professionals. Similar to last year’s acquisition of Activeo, no staff redundancies are expected from the acquisition; both companies are on a path to profitability and expect to tap into each other’s complementary strengths and talents to accelerate growth post-acquisition.

AiChat currently serves a variety of customers in multiple verticals across Southeast Asia, including Bayer, Marina Bay Sands, M1, Petron, Thomson Medical, and UPS.

Speaking on the acquisition, Thomas Laboulle, founder and CEO of Toku, said, “The acquisition of AiChat is a natural next step in our mission to be Asia Pacific’s leading customer experience platform. Both companies share a vision of using AI to enhance customer interactions and improve contact centre operations. Together, we can deliver even more value to our customers through a unified set of omnichannel solutions.”

Brendon Blacker, managing partner of Delivery Hero Ventures, also commented, “As a major strategic investor in Toku, we enthusiastically welcome the acquisition of AiChat. This move is a strategic enhancement to Toku’s portfolio, positioning it as an innovator in the region’s CX industry. AiChat’s expertise in conversational AI and regional insights, combined with Toku’s advanced cloud contact centre solutions, effectively amplifies their unique competitive advantages and signals a deliberate step towards expanding and solidifying their leadership in the market.”

Meanwhile, Kester Poh, founder and CEO of AiChat, said, “We are excited to join Toku. Toku’s commitment to CX excellence mirrors our values, making this acquisition a strategic and natural alignment. This partnership is a key milestone for us, revealing significant opportunities for synergy and growth as leading CX providers in APAC. Together, we aim to simplify customer operations, offering a unified platform for efficient and effective customer experience management.”

Singapore – Around 3 out of 4 Singaporeans have said that they are now more confident in recognising scam calls and SMS than they were 12 months ago. This is according to the latest data from cloud communications and customer experience (CX) software company Toku.

An overwhelming 91% of respondents believe that organisations are making an effort to educate the public about scams, empowering them with the knowledge to identify and thwart scams effectively.

An example of a government initiative that made a noticeable impact is the SMS Sender ID Registry (SSIR). In early 2023, the SSIR made it mandatory for organisations to register their brand names with the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore to verify their identity when they use SMS.

According to data, 87% of Singapore consumers said the SSIR has made it easier to identify the legitimacy of the SMS they receive. 63% also noted that the SSIR has resulted in them receiving less spam or scam messages.

Thomas Laboulle, founder and CEO at Toku, said, “Over the past 12 months, consumers in Singapore have shown a clear shift in their awareness of scams and a rise in their confidence in dealing with them. his has had an impact on the levels of trust they have for the communication channels they use, leading to changing preferences and behaviour in how they interact with brands.”

Despite scam SMS still being prevalent, around 73% remarked that they are more confident in recognising them. Less than a quarter of consumers clicked on URLs in these messages over the past 12 months, and only 13% encountered monetary loss as a result.

The same confidence is also reflected when it comes to scam calls. Around 75% expressed confidence in their ability to identify scam calls, and the number of consumers who picked up a scam call in the past 12 months fell by 19%.

Despite being digital natives, more than a third (36%) of millennials willingly click on suspicious SMS links even if they’re marked “Likely-SCAM” – the highest proportion amongst all the age groups. In contrast, only 8% of those aged 18-24 and 13% of those aged 45-54 are likely to click on these suspicious SMS links.

Labouelle added, “This result may be surprising, but it’s in fact in line with numbers from the Singapore Police Force. Data released by the police in September 2023 showed that those aged 20 to 39 were the most likely to be cheated in scams, making up more than 50% of all victims.”

The data also uncovered how many Singaporean consumers have clear preferred channels for communication from brands. For instance, SMS remains highly preferred by Singapore consumers for OTPs (79%), bank alerts (76%), and appointment reminders (72%). At the same time, WhatsApp gained popularity for marketing messages (47%) and order updates (55%). 

Meanwhile, approximately 3 in 4 consumers are inclined to contact an agent over the phone when confronted with urgent matters pertaining to payment or finance. Similarly, 2 in 3 will reach out to a phone support agent to resolve issues associated with products and service faults.

“Our research shows that Singapore consumers have varying levels of trust and preferences for different channels and types of communication. Organisations should pay attention to these preferences to meet customers where they want,” Laboulle said.

He added, “The rise of generative AI gives companies an unprecedented opportunity to reinforce consumer trust and build more personalised customer experience. AI can take over repetitive and tedious tasks while empowering human agents with the right information and context to further improve their customer service.”

Singapore – Toku, a cloud communications provider that operates in APAC, will be acquiring the Southeast Asia operations of Activeo, a customer experience (CX) consulting firm with an HQ in France. 

Activeo Singapore currently has an established business footprint in the city-state and supports more than 150 customers with their digital transformation projects, including 19 government agencies and 65 per cent of national healthcare institutions. 

Founder and CEO of Toku, Thomas Laboulle, said, “In today’s macroeconomic climate, global technology companies based mostly in the US or Europe have adopted a cautious outlook, scaling down investments in APAC to prioritise markets closer to their homes.”

He continued, “But the region’s digital economy continues to grow, and there is a tremendous opportunity for APAC-first companies like Toku to fill this gap and boldly advance and accelerate our regional growth as others retreat.” 

For the past 12 months, Activeo Singapore has been working with Toku as an independent partner to deliver successful CX transformation projects to many customers in Singapore. Toku commented that the acquisition is a natural next step for both parties to realise the full synergies of their partnership. 

As a technology provider, Toku builds digital solutions to power the backbone of modern customer experience. Toku said that Activeo Singapore complements its offerings with strategic consulting expertise and large-scale enterprise project delivery. 

To maintain its excellence and quality in architecting solutions globally, Activeo Singapore will continue operating as an autonomous business unit under the Toku banner. Jonathan Mondon, managing director of Activeo Singapore, will assume a new role as head of consulting at Toku. Armed with more than fifteen years of multinational leadership experience, Mondon has led Activeo Singapore’s regional business for close to a decade, spearheading its Contact Centre and Customer Experience focus.

Commenting on the acquisition, Mondon said, “Activeo Singapore will continue to be tech-agnostic and deliver the best fit-for-purpose solutions that solves our customers’ pain points. In addition, Activeo Singapore customers will be able to add Toku’s proprietary technology and connectivity solutions to their arsenal, further supercharging their CX strategies.” 

These solutions include Toku’s embeddable products, which enable businesses to embed communication channels within their app or platform using programmable APIs or SDKs, as well as Toku’s carrier-grade connectivity to provide their regional customers with better coverage and call quality. 

According to Toku, as a critical pillar of its regional expansion strategy, the acquisition will see it set up more local offices across the Asia Pacific such as a physical presence in Malaysia. Moreover to this, the company will be further enhancing its channel programme to empower more partners to deliver ‘customer success stories’. 

“By combining forces, we will unlock bigger opportunities and better meet the needs of our customers in Singapore and Asia Pacific,” added Thomas. “This is a win-win acquisition that will strengthen our position as a leading CX solutions provider and enable us to deliver greater scale and efficiency to our customers across the region.”