CourtAvenue’s latest acquisition dives into the world of bots — the less evil kind

As generative AI wends its way deeper into the corners of the agency world, companies are making moves to own their own IP buildups and buildouts. Take CourtAvenue (CA), which Digiday has learned acquired a majority stake in Ukrainian AI bot firm Bots Crew, which sets up custom conversational AI solutions for enterprises, aka bot-driven chat functions, for a range of companies. 

Bots Crew has helped to service a handful of CourtAvenue’s clients — as well as the agency’s internal bot functions — over the last 18 months, said Kenny Tomlin, CourtAvenue’s co-founder and partner. Their working relationship organically led to the acquisition, terms of which neither Tomlin nor Nazar Hembara, Bots Crew’s co-founder, would disclose. It’s estimated that the acquisition runs in the tens of millions of dollars.

Working mostly with U.S.-based clients including City of Chicago, Rutgers University and genetic testing company Natera, Bots Crew will be housed in the CourtAvenue Collective, an umbrella for the various companies it owns. The eight-year-old tech firm will remain standalone and continue to be run out of the Ukraine by its three co-founders, Hembara as well as CTO Oleh Pylypchak and CMO Max Gladysh. 

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