Video conferencing giant Zoom has announced it is acquiring Solvvy, a California-based startup which specializes in conversational AI and automation solutions for the contact center.

Founded in 2013, Solvvy offers an AI-powered self-service customer support agent aimed at easing the load on customer support teams by dealing with simple requests before handing over to a human agent. Customers include technology companies like Calendly, Calm, Seat Geek, and Scribd.

The financial terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed and the deal is expected to close in Q2 of Zoom's fiscal year 2023, with Zoom incorporating Solvvy's software and team into its contact center platform offering.

This is not the first time Zoom has looked to buy companies operating in the customer experience space. Having announced its intention to move into the contact center space at Zoomtopia in 2021, the failed acquisition of cloud-contact center company Five9 a month later saw Zoom press pause on its plans. Then, in February 2022, Zoom launched its own "video-optimized" contact center platform.

in a blog post, president of product and engineering at Zoom, Velchamy Sankarlingam, wrote that the acquisition of Solvvy will help Zoom give customers "automated, integrated, and easy-to-deploy" contact center software.

"With our shared focus and priorities, we will be able to capitalize on new opportunities in contact center and customer support, and long-term, we see tremendous potential to unlock new opportunities where highly personalized, video-based service can be a key differentiator," he wrote.