Qvartz acquires stake in artificial intelligence provider 2021.AI

International management consulting firm Qvartz has agreed a strategic partnership with 2021.AI, a Copenhagen-based technology provider, in a move that will ramp up its analytics and artificial intelligence capabilities.

As part of the partnership, Qvartz, which has seven offices globally, has taken a reportedly small stake in 2021.AI, a company which was founded in 2016 and has grown to a team of around 70 professionals across locales in Denmark, Sweden, India, Ukraine and the UK. 2021.AI specialises in helping its clients extract insights and value from data, through the application of among others artificial intelligence, data science, machine learning and algorithms built on next-generation technologies.

“We are delighted that we now own a share of 2021.AI. The partnership enables Qvartz to deliver end-to-end advanced analytics projects powered by AI technology for our clients. By combining our competences, we can now go from delivering algorithms and insights to putting these algorithms and models into production and supporting them,” said Jens Friis Hjortegaard, a Copenhagen-based Partner at the consulting firm.

The move comes at a time when AI is rapidly gaining ground in the business landscape, as technologies have advanced to the stage when AI can generate real value. Whether it relates to analysing tremendous data sets to uncover opportunities for enhanced commercials (customer groups, pricing, up-selling, etc), or to trimming inefficiencies within internal operations, artificial intelligence is a major force in effectively turning data into valuable information. “AI is becoming the new fuel to exploit competitive advantage for all forward-thinking organisations,” remarked Hjortegaard.

2021.AI’s software platform – APEX AI – enables users to apply machine learning, artificial intelligence and deep learning to “unearth actionable insights”, enabling Qvartz’s consultants to offer clients better and more valuable services. “We now gain enhanced capability for analysing large-scale data, enabling our clients to act upon those insights in real-time, while maximizing value.” Following advisory and implementation, 2021.AI’s professionals provide maintenance and support for algorithms and models through an AI as a Service model. Among the clients of APEX AI are Bolius, FocusVision, Norden and Saxo Bank.

Hjortegaard said that Qvartz had been on the look-out for such an addition for a while, on the back of a booming consulting market for digital transformation and analytics consulting, a market valued at $43 billion. “Qvartz needed an enterprise-grade AI Platform to deliver, implement, and maintain machine learning models.”

Mikael Munck, the founder and CEO of 2021.AI, said that he is “thrilled” with the partnership, a deal which will enable his firm to brings its services to the “global client base: of the Nordics-origin management consultancy. From its offices in Scandinavia (Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm) Hamburg, Amsterdam (through a joint venture with Boer & Croon), New York and Singapore, as well as its partnership with UC Strategy in India, Qvartz currently works on engagements in 50+ countries. The majority of the firm’s clients are in the water, energy, consumer brands and retail, manufacturing, transport and logistics, financial services, media and telecommunication sectors.

Earlier this summer, Dutch airline KLM (a subsidiary of Air France) announced that it has partnered with BCG to bring artificial intelligence to the skies.