Image credits: Ascent
Ascent, a London-based digital services business, announced on Monday that it has acquired BiLD Analytics, a Portuguese data engineering and business intelligence services company. The company didn’t disclose the financial figures of the acquisition.
With this acquisition, Ascent aims to cement its position in the market and create a powerful combination of advanced data capabilities, software, and cloud skills to help customers build digital muscle.
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According to Ascent, the main reason for the acquisition of BiLD is its core engineering capabilities, which are aligned with it’s focus.
Additionally, BiLD’s data engineers hold deep certifications in Microsoft Azure, Databricks, and Snowflake with complimentary data visualisation skills in Tableau, PowerBI, and Qlik.
Diogo Dias, BiLD’s founder and managing partner, will become part of the Ascent leadership team, overseeing the rapid expansion of Ascent’s strategic Portuguese talent hub.
Dias says, “We’re delighted to join the Ascent team, blending our expertise in data engineering with Ascent’s scale and maturity in digital solution development, best practices, and methodologies. Becoming part of Ascent will allow us to keep building on our specialism in ecosystems like Azure and Databricks whilst enabling us to scale faster – and naturally, I am excited about the new career opportunities this brings to our teams.”
BiLD Analytics: What you need to know
Founded as a spin-off programme with Nova IMS in 2018, BiLD Analytics (BiLD) is a cloud-first data engineering, BI, and analytics consultancy platform that helps customers to do more with their data.
Based out of Lisbon, BiLD works with high-profile customers, including TripAdvisor, MercedesBenz.io, Bain & Co, New Signature, Billigence, and Avanade.
Ascent: What you need to know
Founded in 2005, Ascent helps organisations connect data and software with their business purpose to drive ‘extraordinary’ results.
The company says its teams of experts apply skills, including software and data engineering, new product development, business intelligence, advanced analytics, and much more, to help clients redefine and strengthen the relationship between business and digital.
Portuguese company employs more than 420 people worldwide and supports over 180 customers, including BrewDog, the Crown Estate, Centrica (Hive), and BDO.
Stewart Smythe, CEO of Ascent, says, “There’s a real innovation surge in our target market right now that is focussed on rebuilding customer experience, both physical and digital – and data is right at the heart of this movement. Acquiring BiLD extends our reach into nearshore EU talent hubs and will help us meet the mushrooming demand for engineering services we’re seeing as our customers increasingly prioritise driving value from their data.”
“I’ve looked at a large number of similar businesses across Europe over the last 12 months and BiLD stood out – both because of the depth of its Azure and Databricks capabilities and its growth ambition and potential. We’ve been working in partnership with them for several months and have been impressed by the quality of their work and people,” he adds.
Simon Hitchcock, Managing Partner at Horizon Capital says, “Acquisitions like BiLD that create scale in the most market-relevant technical skill sets will accelerate Ascent’s organic growth. Under Stewart Smythe’s direction, we are creating a real contender in the digital services market that is founded on technical substance. BiLD’s data engineering capabilities are a catalyst for future growth – we’re excited to support Ascent as it continues to identify and integrate high quality, high-performing technical businesses.”
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