SWANSEA, Ill., Nov. 14, 2013 /PRNewswire/ — CrowdSource, a leading provider of managed crowdsourcing solutions, announced today it has entered a definitive agreement to acquire San Francisco-based Servio, a competitor in the enterprise crowdsourcing industry. The acquisition will strengthen CrowdSource’s client portfolio, expand its workforce and augment its current service offerings.

“Servio built a great team, a skilled workforce and a solid platform. The industry as a whole is experiencing tremendous growth and this acquisition solidifies our position as the leading provider of managed crowdsourcing solutions,” said CrowdSource Co-Founder and CEO Stephanie Leffler.

Crowdsourcing is the business practice of outsourcing projects to an online community of workers with specialized skills. CrowdSource meets large-scale content creation and content moderation needs of online retailers and online publishers, and it also offers solutions in data gathering and data management.

While Servio and CrowdSource offer similar solutions, Servio emphasized catering its solutions to large online retailers. This acquisition will allow CrowdSource to expand its capabilities and provide more complete solutions for online retailers.

“Servio did a terrific job developing a robust offering for large retailers. While we both provide offerings around ecommerce content, Servio created a scalable solution to help retailers add additional product attributes, making their products more discoverable to search engines. We are excited to launch this offering for our clients,” said Leffler.

This pairing is a step toward consolidating the crowdsourcing industry, which is expected to grow by 90% in 2013. More than 2,000 enterprise companies worldwide have adopted crowdsourcing as part of their labor mix.

The acquisition of Servio expands CrowdSource’s client portfolio to include retailers such as Overstock, Staples, and Toys”R”Us as well as online publishers like Orbitz and CBS/CNET.

The acquisition is expected to close before the end of November. CrowdSource will retain the Servio team and maintain an office in San Francisco.

About CrowdSource
CrowdSource is the industry leader in a multi-billion dollar market, providing clients with on-demand access to a scalable workforce. CrowdSource specializes in content solutions for Fortune 500 online retailers, publishers and media companies. Crowdsource is also the parent company for Transcribe.com, offering transcription solutions, and Write.com, a writer recruitment portal. CrowdSource is headquartered outside of St. Louis and backed by Highland Capital Partners.

SOURCE CrowdSource