**Editor’s Note: Please click here for a recap of the biggest channel-impacting merger and acquisition news from March.**

Cloud provider Evolve IP has acquired thevoicefactory, a U.K.-based cloud communications provider, as part of its ongoing market development strategy.

The purchase provides Evolve IP with additional distribution channels in the United Kingdom and Europe, a significant client base, and greater penetration of numerous verticals. Additionally, the company will add office locations in Fordingbridge, U.K., and Orlando, Florida, as well as gain new data centers in the U.K. and the U.S.

Evolve IP’s Scott Kinka

Scott Kinka, Evolve IP’s CTO, tells Channel Partners that partners will have access to a local team of “highly experienced cloud communications professionals” to provision, deploy and support partners and their customers in the United Kingdom.

“Generally speaking, cloud-communications adoption rates in the United Kingdom and Europe are lower than North America, so in some ways it’s greenfield,” he said. “Our … omnichannel contact center should prove to be very attractive to midsize and enterprise businesses in the United Kingdom.”

Founded in 2009, thevoicefactory has more than 65,000 users in 21 countries via its private-label program. The company works with 35 resellers who will gain access to Evolve IP’s intellectual property and service-delivery capabilities including web-based call management, an advanced omnichannel contact center, single-sign-on identity and access management, and a global team of custom application developers.

Based on the same BroadSoft platform as Evolve IP, thevoicefactory shares a common architecture and framework that will help ensure the rapid adoption of new features and capabilities for existing and new clients, the company said. Today, thevoicefactory is recognized as one of the largest UCaaS providers in the United Kingdom and one of BroadSoft’s biggest wholesalers in Europe, it said.

“thevoicefactory team specializes in several verticals including hospitality, automotive, finance and legal,” Kinka said. “Having a provider with significant experience in those markets will help partners close deals. In particular, the hospitality and automotive markets are very in touch with what others in the vertical are doing; having great brands to reference should open doors for partners.”

Evolve IP continues to expand globally, growing both organically and via M&A in new markets, he said. This acquisition introduces its IP into an emerging market and also provides it with a “significant base of installed customers” that it can provide additional services to, he said.

“We are very excited to be joining Evolve IP and thrilled with the opportunities it provides for our associates and partners,” said Paul Harrison, thevoicefactory’s CEO. “Evolve IP has developed significant intellectual property and a sophisticated service delivery platform that will be of great benefit to our partners and their clients. Additionally, their world-class, compliant OneCloud platform will provide a fantastic platform for clients to add new services. We’re looking forward to immediately contributing to Evolve IP’s international growth.”