Brillio Acquires Cognetik, Founded By Two Romanians And An American

07.08.2020 By Ecaterina Craciun

Cognetik, a data and insights company with deep expertise in improving digital experiences for its customers, which was founded by two Romanians and an American, was acquired by IT company Brillio, backed by giant investment fund Bain Capital, according to Ziarul Financiar.

Following the acquisition, Brillio seeks to significantly expand Cognetik’s Romanian operations in order to “attack” the European market. The company plans to resort to massive staff hiring in the fields of software development, data science and data analytics in Romania. 

“It is a huge opportunity, as we have managed to create a company that is validated by giants like Bain Capital as one of the world’s best data analytics firms. We have major expansion plans for Romania.

We see a bright future, as we seek to significantly boost staff numbers locally and focus on developing applications and cloud solutions. Romania will become Brillio center in Eastern Europe for customers in the United States and Great Britain,” said Daniel Herdean, CEO and Co-founder of Cognetik.

Although the terms of the deal were not disclosed, ZF estimations show the value of the transaction amounts to several tens of millions of dollars. Cognetik’s turnover has grown on average 30-50% per year over the past five years, and is seen nearing $10 million in 2020, per ZF estimations. Cognetik has offices in several countries and cities around the world, having its main units in the United States and Romania. Over half of employees are in Romania and the city of Oradea (northwest Romania) is the company’s largest hub. Cognetik customers include, among others, giants like Facebook, McDonald’s, eBay, and Pizza Hut.

Cognetik enables companies across the globe, including Facebook, Pizza Hut and McDonald’s to build and implement analytics solutions that optimize customer experience to increase loyalty, drive revenue and advance business transformation.

Cognetik’s delivery presence in Romania will expand Brillio’s global delivery capability and enhance the company’s ability to onboard best-in-class talent in the EU continent and service clients in development centers outside of India.

Cognetik was established in 2015 by three analysts, namely, Romanians Catalin Iuga and Daniel Herdean, and American Matt Alexander. Cognetik’s Romanian operations are run by Romanian Radu Lucaciu.

Bain Capital, one of the leading investment funds in the United States, managing assets worth over $100 billion, has lately concentrated its investments on companies that provide digital transformation solutions, such as Brillio and Cognetik.

Raj Mamodia, CEO and Founder of Brillio, said the group seeks to reach revenue of $500 million in the next five years. As part of the growth strategy, Bain Capital announced ever since entering Brillio's shareholding structure as a majority shareholder, in 2019, that it targets expansion through acquisitions, besides organic growth.

“We’re thrilled to welcome Cognetik to the Brillio family,” said Raj Mamodia. “This marks a significant milestone in Brillio’s growth journey, which continues its forward momentum even in a challenging market.” Adds Mamodia, “The industry depth and experience Cognetik brings in advanced analytics, particularly in the areas of customer experience personalization and web analytics, along with Brillio’s existing strength in data science and data engineering, will ensure our customers leverage insights from data and become more relevant than ever.”

Brillio is an IT company headquartered in Silicon Valley, having over 2,600 employees and offices in the United States, Canada, UK and India. Brillio is a leading digital technology consulting and solutions company.