10 February 2025
Ivy Liu.
As the world of agency moves closer to generative AI, companies are taking steps to own their IP buildups. Digiday reported that CourtAvenue (CA) acquired a majority stake of Ukrainian AI bot company Bots Crew. Bots Crew creates custom conversational AI for enterprises, also known as bot-driven chat features, for a variety of companies.
Bots Crew helped CourtAvenue service a few of its clients, as well as the agency’s internal bot functions, over the last 18-months, said Kenny Tomlin. CourtAvenue co-founder and partnership. Their organic working relationship led to the acquisition. Terms of which Tomlin and Nazar Hembara (co-founder of Bots Crew) refused to disclose. The acquisition is estimated to be worth tens of million dollars.
Bots Crew, which primarily works with clients in the United States, including City of Chicago and Rutgers University, as well as genetic testing company Natera will be housed under the CourtAvenue Collective umbrella, a group of companies owned by the firm. The eight-year old tech firm will continue to operate out of Ukraine, led by its three cofounders Hembara, CTO Oleh Pylypchak, and CMO Max Gladysh.
CA’s AI-driven chat capability is a valuable part of its value. The data that these chat functions can gather is valuable to the clients who own the data.
It’s about understanding the LLMs, and their power. Then there’s another engineering layer and a layer for customer experience on top of all that. Tomlin is weighing up whether to rebrand Bots Crew due to the negative connotations of the word bot. Many companies are using intelligent chatbots to solve problems in customer service and conversational business. Hembara said that a typical use case for us is an automation of a service journey. “It’s about building really tailored experiences powered by generative artificial intelligence, so that we can integrate deeply into the CRM or other systems that customers are using.” He said that there are many opportunities to offer services to CourtAvenue’s clients. “We will have a TK quote larger presence in the U.S. as they support our pitches and clients, because we become part of a bigger group than we currently are. There are also opportunities for our clients or services that the Collective offers that we do not offer.
According to the CEO of another media company who is familiar with CourtAvenue and its leadership, but was not aware of this deal, it’s the data that’s generated by a bot driven offering that will provide value for any client using Bots Crew.
The CEO who spoke under the condition of anonymity said, “It is the first time that I have heard of an agency investing in this type of technology.” “Now you can have better integration into your entire ecosystem, across the customer journey. The data they’re getting from the bots, and the chats that are happening — they may not be getting anywhere else in real time. From a business perspective, to say, ‘This product set seems to have more challenges than other products,’ That’s interesting data to have.”
https://digiday.com/?p=568161
