Accenture has invested in Quantexa, a professional services firm with data analytics and network expertise for fighting financial crimes. Accenture Ventures essentially gains a minority stake in Quantexa but specific financial terms were not disclosed.
The deal has potential upside for Accenture Applied Intelligence unit as well as Accenture’s Financial Crime Analytics Utility, a data analytics-as-a-service platform. Watch for refinements to surface in Quantexa’s dynamic network analytics models, allowing them to continuously adapt to emerging threats, the companies say.
Adam Markson, managing director, Accenture Finance & Risk Services, explained these potential deal synergies:
“Accenture is committed to employing innovative techniques to help our clients tackle complex issues such as money laundering. By investing in Quantexa and combining our expertise, we are equipping our clients with new technologies and approaches to solving the most pressing data issues. Furthermore, the strategic alliance further enhances our Financial Crime Analytics Utility, which will help prevent the movement of illicit funds that enable real world issues, including human trafficking and drug crime.”
Vishal Marria, CEO of Quantexa, added:
“We are delighted to be working with Accenture to deliver and scale our technology to help solve our clients’ biggest data challenges. Creating context is critical in investigations to help clients connect the dots in their data, allowing them to see the complete picture and make better decisions.”
This is the latest in a growing list of strategic moves for Accenture. Armed with a $1 billion M&A war chest, the company has been acquiring cloud, security and digital transformation consulting firms over the past two years or so.
Quantexa Funding, Expansion and Partnerships
Quantexa raised US$20 million (£15.2 million) in Series B funding in August 2018. The company, founded in 2016, had 90 employees by mid-2018, along with offices London, Brussels, Sydney, New York and Boston.
Quantexa has relationships with Accenture rivals. For instance, Deloitte’s financial crime fighting team and Quantexa partnered in mid-2018 on contextual monitoring to flag potential money laundering activity within financial institutions. We're curious to see if or how such relationships evolve now that Accenture has a stake in the analytics firm.
