Spin-out TheySay acquired by Aptean

TheySay, a sentiment analysis company spun out from the Department of Computer Science, has been acquired by Aptean, a global provider of mission-critical enterprise software solutions.

London-based TheySay was established in 2011 and co-founded by Professor Stephen Pulman and Dr Karo Moilanen. TheySay develops text analytics and emotion artificial intelligence (AI) software and solutions based on advanced natural language processing (NLP) and deep learning technology.

Aptean had already partnered with TheySay to provide sentiment analysis on social media and email channels for Aptean’s Respond product, an enterprise complaint management solution companies use to provide timely responses to customer feedback.

‘TheySay offers some really exciting technology that help customers understand and respond faster to feedback, predict trends and monitor their reputations, which given the power of social media is more important than ever,’ said Aptean CEO Kim Eaton.

‘Our relationship with Aptean and integration of our capabilities into Respond has opened the door to an exciting new chapter for TheySay,’ said Dr Karo Moilanen, chief technology officer of TheySay and a visiting academic in the department.

‘I'm very pleased that TheySay's technology will now be able to reach a wider market, and integration with Aptean's existing capabilities will make for a very powerful analytics platform,’ said Professor Stephen Pulman.