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May 4, 2021

Higher Logic Acquires Vanilla: Better Together

We’ve acquired Vanilla to become the largest human-focused engagement platform.

We’ve seen a lot of change over the past year. But one thing that remains constant is the power of human connection.

Throughout the pandemic, there’s been a shift in the way people connect and engage. Communities have always been a way to bring people together but now, more than ever, their value is clear.

Today we announced our acquisition of Vanilla, a Canadian cloud-based community software company. We are excited to combine our two, industry-leading platforms, to bring human-focused engagement to more people than ever before.

Combining Two Successful Products into One Unified Company

By leveraging the success of the two leading engagement platforms we are better together. With our combined 26 years of experience in building communities, we now have a deeper concentration of knowledge and best practices to continue building and innovating our products. By expanding our platform, we’re now able to offer you more choices for best-in-class engagement solutions that meet your unique use case, industry, and the needs of your customers or members.

In 2007, we were founded as a platform to help associations build engaging destinations, retain their members, and grow their organizations. Our commitment to the association market will not change. We will be increasing our investment in the space while continuing to grow into the B2B and B2C space.

We have always been impressed with Vanilla’s commitment to innovation in engagement over the years. Their ability to serve key business use cases in the B2B and B2C market for customers like Oracle, TeamViewer, Acer, and Charter Communications complements our success with B2B technology companies like Juniper Networks, Imperva, and others.

Positioning Our Customer Base for Continued Success

The power of our two platforms, the deep industry knowledge in two core markets, and the engagement expertise of approximately 400 employees, positions Higher Logic to serve current and future customers better than any other online community platform.

“Higher Logic has a proven track record in building community engagement and facilitating meaningful connections for organizations,” says Vanilla CEO, Luc Vezina. “With more interactions happening digitally, community has become mission-critical for almost every organization. We are thrilled to be joining forces with Higher Logic to create the pre-eminent online community solution.”

The best minds in online community engagement are now under one roof, and we’re well set up to deliver products and features that will lead the industry.

Want to see what Higher Logic’s platform can do? Visit our homepage to find out.

Learn more in the press release.

Kevin Boyce
Kevin Boyce

Kevin Boyce has over 20 years of experience as a technology executive driving success for small to large software companies. He was most recently CEO of Higher Logic and transitioned to Managing Director for the company.

In 2018 Kevin joined Higher Logic tasked with leveling up the organization following the acquisitions of Socious, Kavi, Informz, and Real Magnet. He led the Integration of the global acquisitions, brands, customers, and teams, setting a unified mission and strategic plan, developed the management team for the future, and established a strategic plan to drive business growth including the acquisitions of Gain Grow Retain, Vanilla (Forums), and eConverse Media

Previously, Kevin was Chief Operating Officer at Ellucian, a cloud-technology ERP solution for higher education, where he led the global services, customer success, cloud, and enterprise project management teams, as well as Ellucian’s global partnerships and corporate development activities. Prior to that Kevin served as Chief Financial Officer at Ellucian. During his tenure, he led Ellucian from $100M to $750M in revenues and successfully executed multiple sale and recapitalization transactions with an aggregate value greater than $4.5 billion.

He is a Director for the Northern Virginia Technology Council and a member of its Nominating Committee. He is a former Director of Level Access and Unanet (both JMI Equity companies), a former member of the Software Advisory Council of Hellman & Friedman, and a former Director of Deltek (a Thoma Bravo Company).

In 2010 and 2016, the Northern Virginia Technology Council of Greater Washington DC named Kevin the Private Company Chief Financial Officer of the Year, and in 2015 he was named a Trending 40: Top Tech Chief Financial Officer by Bisnow. Kevin holds a degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia.