ESPIRA Fund Exits Czech Call Center ICON Communication Centres to yoummday, an Innovative Work-From-Home Platform

ESPIRA Fund Exits Czech Call Center ICON Communication Centres to yoummday, an Innovative Work-From-Home Platform

27th of July 2022, Prague, Czech Republic – ESPIRA Investments (ESPIRA), a Prague-based private equity firm investing growth capital in SME companies based in Central Europe has exited ICON Communication Centres s.r.o. (ICON), a Czech multilingual business process outsourcer (BPO) to yoummday GmbH, the marketplace and technology platform that matches independent entrepreneurs with companies needing customer service talent.

ICON has provided international companies with outsourced customer operations functions since 2003. The company was co-founded by CEO Helen Hickin after identifying Prague as an ideal nearshore location due to its geography, advantageous price point, and the depth of multilingual talent available. ICON is capable of providing complex customer interactions in 30 languages and counts several of the world’s most well-known travel, telecommunication, and education technology companies within its client portfolio.

ESPIRA and ICON’s executive management team acquired ICON in 2019 in a management buy-out transaction that aligned with the private equity firm’s diversity-oriented investment focus. Emília Mamajová, ESPIRA’s Co-Founding Partner, stated “Our goal together with the management team was to develop ICON on the international arena as a successful independent provider of high value-added services – and over the past three years Helen and her team have succeeded in reaching this objective. We congratulate them and wish the team continued success in their partnership with yoummday.”

“Over the past twenty years, the BPO sector has changed significantly, and our investment cooperation with ESPIRA was key to strengthening ICON’s positioning in this fast-changing environment. Through innovative technology, yoummday has found an exciting new way for companies to outsource operations with greater flexibility. Now is the right time for ICON’s next phase of evolution and yoummday is the ideal partner to ensure ICON’s clients continue to benefit from innovative delivery solutions”, states Helen Hickin, CEO, ICON Communication Centres.

The purchase of ICON is yoummday’s first acquisition which accelerates the company’s international expansion as it seeks to disrupt traditional BPO and contact centre models. ICON brings significant benefits and expertise with respect to native-level multilingual capability, global reach, and B2B customer experiences.

“The acquisition of ICON furnishes the opportunity to strengthen our growth strategy, which is predicated on integrating traditional BPO operators into our own proprietary marketplace platform. We look forward to working with the ICON team and weaving their unique capabilities into the yoummday brand”, emphasized Dr. Klaus Harisch, CEO and Founder of yoummday.

ICON’s C-Team will continue to operate alongside yoummday, and the ICON brand remains in in operation for the foreseeable future.

The transaction was concluded on the 20th of July 2022 and the parties have agreed not to disclose the financial details of the transaction.

ICON is an agile contact centre based in Central Europe that recruits and manages multilingual teams specialising in sales, account management, and customer support services for B2B and B2C companies across various sectors. Companies wanting to scale or test new markets leverage ICON’s award-winning knowledge of customer experience solutions and customer journeys to grow their market presence cost-effectively.

ESPIRA Investments is a Prague-based private equity firm investing growth capital in Central European small and medium size enterprises. One element of ESPIRA’s strategy includes investing in companies managed by gender diverse leadership teams. ESPIRA investors include the European Investment Fund, the founding partners of ESPIRA Andrea Ferancová Bartoňová and Emília Mamajová, family offices, and a mix of local and international private investors.

yoummday.com has developed a Work@Home Operating System (W@H OS) which allows to leverage its 360° customer service platform. yoummday stands for “you made my day “. The Munich-based company was founded in 2016 by telegate and GoYellow founder Dr. Klaus Harisch and his sons Pablo and Lion. On the yoummday platform, over 6,000 qualified customer service talents from 65 nations working remotely from home are matched with client companies in need of professional customer service. yoummday employs more than 200 people in Munich, Halle, Berlin, and Sofia.

ESPIRA Investments:

Emília Mamajová, Founding Partner
ESPIRA Investments
emilia@espirainvestments.com
+420 725 591 488