BGF investing £9m in software firm Voicescape

Communications software specialist Voicescape has secured a £9m investment from growth capital investor BGF.

Salford-based Voicescape, which works with social housing providers and local authorities, plans to use the investment to grow its product suite and to invest in the development and growth of its AI-driven Caseload Manager tool.

The deal will see Voicescape’s chief operations officer Gary Haynes become managing director. Bill Williams, chief revenue officer, will continue to lead the sales division which has generated 174% growth in annual recurring revenue over the last two years.

Dean Dickinson will continue in his role as non-executive chair, which he took in April 2022. He was previously CEO at BGF-backed software firm Castleton Technology.

Voicescape founder, John Doyle said: “The social housing and local authority sectors have displayed a remarkable appetite for digital transformation over the last few years, which was only accelerated by the pandemic. The constantly changing needs and circumstances of residents have been highlighted, making it crucial for organisations to use technology effectively.

“Voicescape’s solutions have been focused on helping organisations use technology to better understand their customers’ behaviours and improve engagement at scale, especially when faced with these strategic challenges. BGF is an ideal partner to support Gary, Bill and the team to help more organisations in the areas of greatest need.”

Voicescape was founded in 1998 and today works with more than 50 registered social housing providers and local authorities across the UK.

It developed its Caseload Manager system alongside social housing provider, Thirteen Group. The system automates the management of rent arrears, reviewing resident behaviours and risks, to try to ensure that the provider can focus its time on people who need more personal support. Voicescape says that since implementation in late 2021, Caseload Manager has reduced the number of arrears cases requiring manual action at Thirteen by 65%.

The deal was led by Pinesh Mehta and Josh Bean, investors in BGF’s North West team. As part of the deal Pinesh Mehta and BGF portfolio manager, Jill Williams will join the board.

Mr Mehta said: “Voicescape has already made some strong strategic acquisitions to enhance its use of behavioural insights and data science, which sets it apart from other software providers in its space. At the same time, the business has built out an impressive and capable management team to drive future growth.

“Voicescape’s technology, which has been co-developed with customers, is already transforming organisations. Our investment will enable even more public service organisations to adopt automation technology to improve operational efficiency and build better engagement with staff, tenants and service users.”

BGF was advised by TLT (legal), Hurst (tax) and Paul Bosson (financial due diligence). Voicescape’s legal adviser was Hill Dickinson.

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