Cloudli sees the acquisition as highly synergistic, from a product perspective, from a market expansion perspective, and, critically for two companies which are channel-focused, from a partner perspective.

Today, Montreal-based voice, data and messaging solutions provider Cloudli Communications has announced the acquisition of ConnectMeVoice, a New Jersey-based provider of VoIP, unified communications as a service [UCaaS] and contact center as a service [CCaaS] solutions. The deal takes effect immediately. It expands Cloudli’s overall portfolio and strengthens them in the broader North American market by expanding their presence in the U.S.

‘We see our businesses as being very close,” said Gavin Macomber, President and CEO of Cloudli Communications. “We also have two solutions in Canada  on the business communications side of the house, and we have a UC offer which we sell through a network of 700 partners. We also have a strong network of partners, mainly in Canada.”

Cloudlii has been around, based in Montreal since 1982. They started out as Voice Systems, changed their name to babyTEL in 2004 and became Cloudlii in 2021

“We started in the French [Canadian] market and expanded from there to the rest of Canada and into the U.S.,” Macomber said. “We got into IP-Fax early on and still have a strong presence there. We also have a joint UC plus CC product – Cloudli Connect.”

Macomber emphasized that Cloudli has other major points of differentiation that make them competitive against larger players.

“We offer flexible pricing, where we sell by the service and not by the seat,” he said. “A small business might have 30 users, but they won’t need 30 lines. Ten call paths is likely good for them, and they can purchase those on an a la carte solution. ConnectMeVoice has been doing the same thing.”

“Call path processing has also been a major differentiator for as well as a differentiation for our white label MSP program,” said Scott Seltzer, CEO of ConnectMeVoice. ConnectMeVoice’s product portfolio includes its new feature-rich Clarity UCaaS platform, contact centre, text and chat, and SIP trunking.

The two companies have a limited overlap in their existing channels.

“Collectively, we have more than 1000 partners and resellers, but we have very little overlap because we don’t sell a lot of UCaaS and CCaaS in the U.S.,” Macomber indicated. “In the U.S., we have an existing channel selling predominately our IP-Fax. We sell that in Canada too, but our main business in Canada is Cloudli Connect. With ConnectMeVoice, we inherit a strong customer and channel base and nice product solutions.”

The deal came about because Cloudli was looking to expand its presence in the U.S. market.

“We had been looking for a synergistic provider of UC and CC as a service in the U.S. for about 18 months now,” Macomber said. “We felt that CMV had built a phenomenal product, and we approached them in February.”

“We were open to being acquired, and we determined that it was the right fit, from a product, people and partner program,” Seltzer said.

There won’t be much change to ConnectMeVoice as the two companies are integrated. Cloudli will retain the existing ConnectMeVoice team to provide complete continuity for its partners and customers. Seltzer will continue to manage day-to-day operations as General Manager for ConnectMeVoice. Chris Van Wagoner, ConnectMeVoice’s Chief Operating Officer, will take over the same role for the newly combined organization.

“We are pleased with what ConnectMeVoice has done,” Macomber indicated. “Branding, to ConnectMeVoice by Cloudli, will be the only change.”

“We are really excited to become part of the Cloudli team, and to see our already strong partner programs and product sets continue to be strengthened,” Seltzer said.

“We are excited that we have really strengthened our portfolio, particularly by building a larger network,” Macomber concluded. “At the end of the day, partners in both Canada and the US will have access to a much stronger portfolio.”