Accenture Technology Ventures purchases stake in leading European CRM software vendor
LONDON, September 14, 2000 - Data Distilleries, a leading European vendor of innovative analytical Customer Relationship Management ("aCRM") solutions, announced today that Accenture Technology Ventures, the venture capital unit of Accenture, is to join its consortium of second-round investors.
As part of the agreement, Accenture and Data Distilleries will jointly deliver aCRM solutions to clients who are seeking to personalise customer interaction and marketing, increase the profitability of their customers and maximise the return on investment of CRM projects.
The recently announced funding round has raised $24 million and was led by Capital Z Financial Services Fund II (CZF II), the leading global private equity fund focused on the financial services industry.
The funding proceeds will enable Data Distilleries to undertake key activities such as:
Commenting on the marketing agreement, Marcel Holsheimer, CEO of Data Distilleries, said: "We are delighted to have this relationship with Accenture, which has an outstanding reputation and proven track record as a leader in the CRM market. We look forward to working more closely with them to ensure that both organisations remain at the forefront of the CRM market, offering first-class CRM solutions to a large and prestigious client base."
Bill Crothers, Accenture’s Managing Partner for its European Customer Relationship practice, added: "Today’s companies require new insight into their customers’ needs and preferences, which can ultimately help them provide more tailored and effective offerings to these customers. The combination of Data Distilleries analytics and personalisation toolset with Accenture’s ability to help companies use this information for bottom line results is a winning one."
Crothers continued: "We will focus our joint efforts on providing solutions initially to financial services, communications and utilities organisations. However, as a flexible business-to-consumer analytical solution, the new offering has widespread relevance for virtually all industries that have large customer databases and rely on multi-channel interactions."
New York-based venture capital firm Capital Z Partners manages CFZ II. Rainer Kirchgässner, a principal at Capital Z Partners in London, commented: "Accenture Technology Ventures is a great partner to have in this financing round. The investors in this consortium have very complementary strengths and all of them can contribute with their knowledge and experience to the company’s advantage."
About Data Distilleries
Founded in 1995 as a spin-off of the Dutch National Research Center for Mathematics and Computer Science, Data Distilleries (www.datadistilleries.com ) has established a leading position in the analytical CRM market with its Multi Touchpoint Personalisation (MTP) software, DD Series. The key feature of the product is its ability to analyse and predict customer behaviour and to use that knowledge to give real-time, personalised recommendations through all sales and service channels (e.g. call centre, sales force, email, web, mobile phones, etc). By using DD Series, which can be easily integrated with conventional operational CRM systems and data warehouses, companies can discover unrealised knowledge from their customer databases.
Such enhanced information is very valuable to companies as it allows them to have a deeper understanding of customer behaviour, thereby ensuring more effective customer interaction and targeting. For example, when a customer contacts a company’s call centre, all the customer’s most recent data is immediately pulled from the company’s other touchpoints and data warehouses. This data is analysed, in real-time, against the customer profile that DD Series has predicted and ensures that any product recommendations match the client’s current needs. Similarly, if a customer visits a company’s website, behaviour is analysed and taken into account in formulating the next personalised product offering.
DD Series is mainly used by companies from the financial services industry but is also well suited for the telecommunication and utility industries. Data Distilleries’ customer base includes leading financial institutions, like Postbank (ING Group), AAGUS (ABN Amro) and Spaarbeleg (Aegon). Data Distilleries has forged partnerships with market leaders in the area of CRM and e-business, such as Siebel Systems, Aims Software, Prime Response, BroadVision, and Accenture.
About Capital Z
Based in New York, Capital Z Financial Services Fund II, LP (CZF II) is a $1.85 billion global private equity fund that focuses exclusively on investments in traditional and online financial services companies. CZF II, which was formed in August 1998, is managed by Capital Z Partners, a global alternative asset management firm headquartered in New York City with offices in San Francisco, London and Hong Kong. Capital Z Partners also manages Capital Z Investments, L.P., a $1.5 billion fund which focuses exclusively on investments in private equity funds, hedge funds and other alternative investment vehicles. Since 1990, Capital Z Partners and its predecessor funds have invested in excess of $1.8 billion in over 70 transactions - including more than $450 million in efinance businesses. Additional information about Capital Z can be found at its Web site at www.capitalz.com.