Keensight Capital has replaced Cathay Capital as majority shareholder of Datawords, alongside the founders’ team.The Datawords Group has a history of rapid expansion over the last five years, its turnover rose from EuR30 million to EUR70 million (at the end of 2019) and the number of employees doubled to reach 800 people.
The sustained organic growth has been particularly driven, since 2015, by the successful deployment strategy in North America (with the gain of numerous clients in the United States and the opening of new offices in Montreal and Mexico City) and the strengthening of the Group’s activity in Asia, particularly in continental China (with new offices in Shanghai and Manila, following those in Hong Kong, Seoul, and Tokyo).
Benefiting from the active support of its shareholders, Datawords has also carried out several external growth operations over the past two years, with the acquisitions of Vanksen, 87 Seconds and WhatSquare, enabling it to accelerate the diversification of its service offering.
The Group’s technological expertise was also strengthened through major investments in the development of proprietary solutions (Wezen) and the launch of several strategic partnerships (notably with Adobe, Assist or ContentSquare).
Today, Datawords is a fully integrated global Group, offering its customers the ability to roll out digital and video content on an international scale, with the support of multilingual technologies.
The arrival of Keensight Capital as a majority investor will enable Datawords to pursue and accelerate its technological innovation strategy, especially in the field of Artificial Intelligence. Furthermore, Datawords will continue to enrich its offering of digital content creation and production and expand its international presence.
Stanislas de Nervo, Co-founder and CEO of Datawords, says: “Datawords will celebrate its 20th anniversary next June with the opening of a new chapter. The last five years were truly transformative for us as we built a unique platform on three continents, integrated and developed new expertise and attracted new talents. Cathay Capital will always hold an important place in our history for having twice supported us as a shareholder in the creation of a truly international Group. We are delighted to enter this new phase of our history with Keensight, building on the relationship of trust we have enjoyed since 2015.”
Philippe Crochet, Managing Partner of Keensight, says: “We are very pleased to continue and to deepen our collaboration with the co-founders of Datawords and the talented multicultural team they have built up and with whom we are very familiar. The unrivalled quality of service offering of Datawords, which is a world leader in its sector, coupled with the ability of its managers to generate double-digit growth every year for the past 20 years have convinced us to invest a majority stake in this great entrepreneurial adventure. We intend to leverage our extensive expertise in the IT sector to support the Group in successfully stepping up to the AI challenge internationally.”
