Vimpelcom invests in audio badge developer Voca-Tech

MOSCOW. March 6 (Interfax) - Vimpelcom has acquired a minority stake in Dybys Tech, a Kazakh company that owns Voca-Tech, a developer of solutions for digital management of employee performance, the Russian mobile services provider said in a press release.

Vimpelcom did not disclose the size of the stake or the price. National daily Kommersant reported that the company acquired 20% of the startup.

The paper reported a source at a venture capital fund as saying that the deal may have valued Voca-Tech at six to ten times its 2022 revenue. "Based on Voca-Tech's revenue for 2021 (62.2 million rubles), Vimpelcom's acquisition could have cost 74.6 million-124.4 million rubles," the paper quoted the source as saying.

Vimpelcom said in its release that Voca-Tech has developed an automated control system with a badge that records employees' voices for subsequent analytics with the aim of improving customer service and increasing sales. The audio badges show the employees' name and position and have a warning that conversations are being recorded. The solution works with most providers of speech-to-text systems and is already being used by more than 50 large companies.

"Voca-Tech's solutions expand Beeline.Business's product portfolio in the area of ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), and a number of corporate clients are already using the startup's products to improve their services. Moreover, Voca-Tech's technology makes it possible to meet the requirements of government institutions interested in improving the quality of work with the public," the company said.