BeVocal

Founded in 1999 by Kevin Stone, BeVocal was a key player in the voice and data application market, specializing in automated customer service solutions. The company was established in Mountain View, California, and focused on providing hosted call automation for enterprises and service providers. BeVocal's core business involved offering hosted application systems for customer self-service, which were designed to meet the specific needs of the mobile communications market. The firm's technology aimed to reduce costs and enhance voice services for mobile service providers, ultimately looking to improve their customer satisfaction and revenue.

BeVocal's offerings were centered around self-service customer care tools that addressed the business requirements of the mobile sector. This included applications for handset activation, general customer care, and the fulfillment of add-on features. The company also supported developers by providing tools and resources through its Carrier Partnership Program, which enabled the creation and sale of new voice applications using VoiceXML or SpeechObjects. This strategy was intended to facilitate the growth of the voice application market by lowering the barrier to entry for developers.

Financially, BeVocal demonstrated significant growth, raising a total of $55 million over two funding rounds. The initial round occurred on April 13, 2000, raising $45 million, followed by a Series B round on April 18, 2005, which brought in an additional $10 million led by ArrowPath Venture Capital. The company attracted several institutional investors, including TCV and USVP. The journey of BeVocal as an independent entity concluded on April 25, 2007, when it was acquired by Nuance Communications for approximately $140 million. This acquisition allowed Nuance to expand its product portfolio into mobile customer lifecycle management and to deliver applications through additional channels like web and SMS. Keywords: BeVocal, Kevin Stone, voice applications, automated customer service, mobile communications, call automation, self-service customer care, VoiceXML, Nuance Communications acquisition, speech recognition software, mobile customer lifecycle management, hosted application systems, mobile service providers, customer self-service, voice portal, carrier partnership, handset activation, contact center solutions, interactive voice response, IVR