8x8 Inc. acquires Wavecell, expanding reach, CPaaS services

8x8 Inc. has acquired Wavecell Pte. Ltd., a Singapore-based global communications platform-as-a-service provider in an effort to accelerate 8x8's growth and expand its international presence. The acquisition was for $125 million in cash and stock.

Wavecell enables 8x8 to expand its presence into the Southeast Asian market, in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Hong Kong. Wavecell has more than 500 enterprise customers, as well as a research and development center in Asia. All employees will join 8x8.

According to 8x8, acquiring Wavecell will increase its market to include communications platform as a service (CPaaS), improve its end-to-end cloud communications platform and expand its global presence and coverage.

In acquiring Wavecell, 8x8 will, in turn, acquire its CPaaS platform, including a cloud-first API platform that features SMS, chat apps, video interaction and voice APIs. According to 8x8, these features enable enterprise applications such as application-to-person messaging, omnichannel customer support and multifactor authentication.

The CPaaS market has continued to grow, with other unified communications vendors such as Cisco and Vonage acquiring CPaaS providers Tropo, and Nexmo and Tokbox, respectively. Additionally, market intelligence firm IDC predicts the CPaaS market to grow to $10.9 billion in 2022.

The acquisition also brings Wavecell's omnichannel CPaaS capabilities to 8x8's existing cloud communications platform. This enables users such as a healthcare facility to treat cases virtually by using the embedded video conference feature enabled by CPaaS. Additionally, 8x8 users can now use its API platform and software development kits to access and integrate their own enterprise applications with 8x8's messaging, voice and video services.

8x8 will also now be able to use Wavecell's global multi-channel communication coverage in 190 countries through relationships with 192 network operators, including WhatsApp. According to 8x8, the ability to reach more people in more places will improve its global service delivery for enterprise customers.

In the press release from 8x8, Wavecell CEO and Co-Founder Olivier Gerhardt said that becoming part of 8x8 would provide expanded unified communications as a service, contact center as a service and CPaaS offerings to current customers.