Collab celebrates one year with Lumine Group

March 28, 2021February 25, 2025

In celebration of Collab’s one-year anniversary with Lumine Group, we spoke with the team to learn about all they have achieved over the past year, what they have learned, what the business looks like today, and what they most look forward to in year two and beyond. Explore more below.

Collab was acquired by Lumine Group on March 19, 2020. Headquartered in Lisbon, Portugal, Collab provides award-winning contact center software solutions to telecommunications operators across Europe, Latin America, and South America, serving over 600 customers worldwide and with over 70 partners in 40 countries.

To learn more about Collab’s first year with Lumine, we spoke with Pedro Quintas, Founder of Collab and recently promoted Sub-Group Leader of Lumine Group, Pedro Rodrigues, recently promoted to CEO of Collab, and Carlos Vasconcelos, Chief Marketing Officer.

Upon acquisition, what goals did you set to accomplish in the first year?

The first goal was to learn and adapt as much of the knowledge from Lumine’s Playbook –– Lumine’s guide to hundreds of best practices for acquiring, strengthening, and growing communications and media software businesses.

After reviewing the Playbook, we would be able to address our second goal, which would be to adjust our quarterly and annual goals to reflect the new reality of what we believe Collab could accomplish. We approach all goal setting with an aggressive but at the same time realistic perspective, which we believe was a key ingredient for the success of the integration process.

How did you and your teams respond to the integration process?

The teams responded very well. It was refreshing to join Lumine and be part of a group that understands a product company like ourselves. There was a good match between the processes and our beliefs.

Lumine has merit as an acquirer, and we quickly understood why. They have a strong and mature way of managing. With Lumine’s experience, they can quickly identify areas for optimization and can act fast. We operate autonomously on a day-to-day, but at the beginning, there were many (virtual) face-to-face integration sessions and workshops that built a strong relationship and trust with the Lumine team.

There was a lot to learn at first – new processes, reporting methods, new tools to use. And there is no doubt that it takes hard work and dedication to get up to speed. But one year in, we are already experiencing the value of what Lumine can bring, and the numbers can prove it.

What has access to the Lumine Group ecosystem meant for your business?

Best practices have sped up our integration and level of maturity of our processes. Access to the amazing ecosystem of customers is opening exciting opportunities for growth.

One important note to highlight is Lumine’s culture of knowledge sharing. There is a strong process set in place to encourage learning from each other. There are ongoing peer-to-peer sessions, the Playbook, the online set of articles, the knowledge of the management team. We feel the impact of having access to these experts, and the value of this knowledge-sharing network.

We also have opportunities for partnering with other businesses within Lumine Group. We are currently working on a project with WDS Mobile to create a cross-company offer, and everyone involved is very excited about what it can bring for our businesses and most importantly, for our customers. Hopefully, we can share more about this soon.

3 Reasons Collab Chose Lumine

Buy-and-Hold Forever

With Lumine Group’s buy-and-hold forever acquisition philosophy, Quintas felt Lumine would support and drive future business decisions with integrity, building on Collab’s 17-year history.

The Ecosystem of Customers

The Lumine Group ecosystem grants access to 400+ customers opening up organic growth opportunities for Collab – something they were eager to explore.

Access to Best Practices

Lumine provides access to best practices cultivated over many years. As Collab looks to expand its market reach, Lumine has the best practice expertise to drive, and close those contracts.

Opportunities within the Lumine Ecosystem

For Collab, access to new telco customers within the Lumine Group ecosystem was an intriguing benefit to joining Lumine. “The ecosystem of customers that Lumine brings is another opportunity that Collab can explore,” said Quintas. “There is an opportunity to grow in a consistent way.”

There was also the opportunity to explore synergies between other telco businesses within the Portfolio. Post-acquisition, Collab met with Advantage 360 and WDS Mobile to uncover any potential opportunities between the businesses.

Lumine can also support Collab’s goals for greater international growth. At the time of inception, Collab was a Portuguese company mostly operating out of Portugal. Expanding into new geographies was not always simple. Within the Lumine ecosystem, not only does Collab have access to new customers in new geographies, but they also have the logistical support, from legal to human resource team, to facilitate deals.

Collab was acquired on March 19, 2020, the day Portugal went into a full lockdown due to health precautions surrounding COVID-19.

Acquisition During COVID-19

Typically, post-acquisition, the Lumine leadership team visits the newly acquired business on-site to launch the integration process. This involves in-person workshops, functional training sessions, knowledge sharing – and of course, some time for celebrations. For the first time in Lumine Group history, this integration was done remotely.

“We worked together, we adapted,” said Quintas. Collab and Lumine worked closely to ensure all the tools were in place to make the integration seamless. “While we lost the face-to face, we still feel so close to the team today,” said Quintas.

Collab’s strategy and go-to-market process will not change. The brand identity will also remain. However, with new expertise and best practices from Lumine Group, Collab will work on a more robust execution moving forward. “We are already learning from Lumine’s best practices –– insights on how to be more productive, how to empower different businesses and environments,” said Quintas. “We will be a different company a year from now, but our identity, our values, will be the same.”

What’s Next for Collab?

Two weeks post-acquisition, Collab and Lumine Group held a webinar for all Collab customers to share more about the acquisition, followed by an open-floor Q&A to answer any customer questions. Transparency is a priority, and Collab wanted to ensure that customers felt empowered to ask questions about what this acquisition would mean for them. Essentially, business will continue as normal. Over the long term, what customers can expect will be accelerated and more focus growth. In addition, customers may also find an opportunity for their own cross sell through different channels within the Lumine Portfolio.

As mentioned above, just one-month post-acquisition, Collab has already met with different businesses within the Lumine Portfolio to uncover synergy opportunities and cross-selling. “We are creating an environment to do better,” said Quintas. Part of the excitement of the acquisition brings this discovery and exploration. Today, Collab is excited to further explore, to accelerate, and to grow their next chapter with Lumine Group.

If someone looking to be acquired values what they have now, and they want to evolve, the Lumine approach empowers that.

—Pedro Quintas, Founder & CEO, Collab

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