Webhelp reinforces its best-in-class nearshore portfolio

Global leading BPO and customer experience company Webhelp has confirmed the acquisition of the majority of the share capital of top multilingual nearshore firm Runway BPO has been completed.

Runway, which is headquartered in Riga – Latvia, brings an additional nine multilingual centres and 1,000 people across Latvia and new countries for Webhelp; Estonia, Lithuania, the Ukraine and Spain, as well as additional expertise in not just sectors such as travel and consumer goods but also activities such as accounting, IT, and HR outsourcing, complementing Webhelp’s existing portfolio perfectly.

Runway celebrates its 15-year anniversary this year and has enjoyed strong growth under the leadership of its founder Nils Sundling and CEO Uldis Prieditis. The team responsible for the company’s success will remain in place to ensure the expertise, contacts and local knowledge are maintained and harnessed to maximise the opportunities for development in the Nordic region and across Europe.

Frédéric Jousset, co-founder of Webhelp, said:  “Runway is an excellent business with a strong track record of delivering first-class customer experience on behalf of Scandinavian and international clients. We are very excited about joining forces with the company, its management team and employees, to expand Webhelp’s global footprint and support the company in the Scandinavian market with the resources available from our group organisation and investors.

Uldis Prieditis, CEO of Runway BPO, said:  “Ever since Runway was established, 15 years ago, we have been driven by the ambition to become a well-known and reputable partner in the Scandinavian BPO market with a strong focus on excellent CRM experience, particularly in terms of quality delivered and tailor-made solutions provided. Our efforts have resulted in long-lasting partnerships with our clients, many of which we’ve been with for more than 10 years now and an amazing team of more than 1,000 great people working for our clients each day. Our ambition is now to expand internationally as well. With this focus a change in ownership to the Webhelp Group is a perfect fit for the company, its clients and employees. The increased growth opportunities will help support employment and the best practice sharing with our sister companies within the international group will help us to bring Runway to an even higher level.”

This acquisition is part of Webhelp’s strategy to actively pursue geographical expansion as well as reinforce its sectorial expertise, and will allow Webhelp to offer its clients services from four new countries, each with strong multilingual capabilities.

The past 2 years have been very significant in the history of Webhelp. Major new client wins, strategic acquisitions, and the commitment from global investment firm KKR, have marked a real turning point in the Webhelp story, which is now truly one of the leaders in the BPO sector.