Genesys, an AI-driven developer of call center software, said on Monday it has confidentially filed for an initial public offering in the United States, signaling growing investor appetite for new listings after a prolonged dry spell.
The move comes as the IPO market recovers with investors once again turning warmer towards tech startups that they had shunned for over two years due to concerns around lofty valuations.
Analysts expect companies catering to the AI market to lead the charge for tech sector listings, amid heightened expectations of multi-fold growth over the next few years as corporates increasingly find more generative AI use cases.
Genesys did not reveal any details about its IPO or a timeline for going public, but a September report from Bloomberg News citing sources said the company could raise as much as $2 billion in the offering.
In December 2021, Genesys raised $580 million in a funding round led by Salesforce Ventures, valuing it at $21 billion. Other investors in the round had included Zoom Video Communications (ZM.O), D1 Capital Partners and funds and accounts managed by BlackRock (BLK.N).
Genesys was acquired by private equity firm Permira Holdings from Alcatel-Lucent in 2012, valuing the company then at about $1.5 billion. Hellman & Friedman invested about $900 million in the company in 2016 for an equity stake.
The company operates in over 100 countries with more than 6,000 employees, according to its website. Its partners include tech giants Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Adobe (ADBE.O).
Its customers span across the technology, retail and industrial sector, and include Virgin Atlantic, Coca-Cola Bottlers' Sales and Services and Ethiopian Airlines.
The company's cloud platform fetched over $1.6 billion in revenue in the second quarter of its fiscal year 2025, more than 35% higher than last year, it said in September.
