OpenAI to acquire the team behind executive coaching AI tool Convogo

OpenAI kicks off the new year with yet another acquisition. The AI ​​giant is acquiring the team behind Convogo, an enterprise software platform that helps executive coaches, consultants, talent leaders and HR teams automate and improve leadership assessments and feedback reporting.

An OpenAI spokesperson said the company is not acquiring Convogo’s IP or technology, but rather hiring the team to work on its “AI cloud efforts.” The three co-founders – Matt Cooper, Evan Cater and Mike Gillett – will join OpenAI as part of what a source familiar with the matter called an all-stock deal.

The Convogo product is being phased out.

The startup started as a “weekend hackathon” sparked by a question from Cooper’s mother, who is an executive coach: Could an AI tool automate the tedious writing of reports so she can spend more time doing the human coaching work she loves? Over the past two years, Convogo has helped “thousands” of coaches and worked with the world’s top leadership development companies,” per email with news of the acquisition, sent by Convogo.

In the email, the team wrote that the real problem they have discovered in their work is how to bridge the gap between what is possible with each new model release and how to translate that into real-world results.

“Now more than ever, we believe the key to bridging that gap lies in thoughtful, purpose-driven experiences, like what we’ve built for coaches at Convogo,” the founders wrote. “That’s why we’re excited to join OpenAI and continue our work to make AI accessible and useful to professionals in every industry.”

The Convogo acquisition marks OpenAI’s ninth acquisition in a year, according to data from PitchBook. In almost all of these acquisitions, the product was either absorbed into the OpenAI ecosystem (as in the case of Sky, the AI ​​interface for Mac, or Statsig, a product testing company) or completely discontinued when the team joined OpenAI, as in the case of Roi, Context.ai and Crossing Minds.

The Convogo deal also indicates that OpenAI, like its competitors, is using mergers and acquisitions as a talent and capacity accelerator. The main exception to that rule is OpenAI’s acquisition of Jonny Ive’s io Products, which continues its product roadmap as the two companies work together to create a piece of AI hardware.