The global data analytics market is not only growing quickly but within it the acquisitions of smaller players continues apace. In the last 12-to- 18 months, there have been a flurry of deals, including US-based data analytics company Teradata buying the UK’s Big Data Partnership, SAP acquiring Roambi, a specialist in mobile business intelligence and analytics and Tableau acquiring HyPer, a high-performance database system.
Frequently the bigger players opted to buy smaller companies with specific big-data capabilities rather than trying to develop them in-house, which can take more time and come at greater cost and internal distraction.
The latest such move is noted from systems integration consulting firm Accenture which has bought a minority stake in data preparation software developer Paxata, and has elevated the company into a strategic partner.
California-based Paxata, a growing company in the highly competitive market for data transformation software, develops software that allows business users to collect raw data from multiple disparate sources, including on-premises and cloud systems, and prepare it for analysis. This typically requires data science and programming skills. Paxata’s Adaptive Information Platform makes it possible for clients to unlock trapped data and use it to develop insights.
Accenture will add Paxata’s platform and self-service data preparation tools to its own Accenture Insights platform, a cloud-based, business analytics-as- a-service solution. Paxata will support Accenture clients’ emerging enterprise requirements such as digital transformation, modern data supply chain, and general data protection regulation for hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
The software developer, founded in 2012, has won industry recognition and several awards in its short lifespan. Independent UK-based IT research firm Bloor give it the highest ranking among data preparation providers for the first purpose-built adaptive data preparation application and platform. The Redwood City-based company has raised some $61 million over four rounds of funding, one of them from EDBI, the Singapore Economic Development Board. In September, Standard Chartered made a strategic investment in Paxata and adopted the vendor’s software for use by the bank’s employees.
Accenture did not disclose the size of the minority investment in Paxata but said that the investment was made through Accenture Ventures, the company’s venture capital arm which specifically looks for promising innovation companies, start-ups, entrepreneurs and academic and corporate R&D groups. In the past Accenture Venture invested in robotics and digital transformation while this year it branched out into cloud-based banking with the nCino Bank Operating System.
Accenture may have to increase its investment in technology start-ups to keep in step with the ever-more- rapid technological changes which are affecting its core enterprise IT consulting businesses.
Paxata’s group technology officer Sanjeev Vohra says Accenture and Paxata are already building new capabilities that will help clients create highly effective data supply chains, which in turn will ultimately enable them to become intelligent data-powered enterprises.
According to the new deal, Accenture has been designated a preferred systems integrator for Paxata’s software on a global basis. The two companies also plan to collaborate on Paxata’s pipeline of future products. They will work on joint design solutions and technical integration projects for customers of both companies.