BrazilDutch consultancy Solid buys stake in data science firm
Dutch financial services consultancy Solid Professionals has joined forces with Amsterdam Data Collective.
The collaboration sees Amsterdam Data Collective acquire the artificial intelligence advisory practice of finance & risk consulting firm Solid Professionals, in a transaction that is funded through the sale of a minority stake in the firm to the shareholders of Solid Professionals.
As a result, Amsterdam Data Collective will become part of The Hup, the parent of Solid Professionals as well as Hermes | Partners (a provider of IT talent), DNFS (a provider of talent to the pharma sector) and two other initiatives.
The move sees around ten data scientists join the team of Amsterdam Data Collective, bringing its total headcount to 30. “This allows us to accelerate our data science ambitions,” said Rik van der Woerdt, who founded Amsterdam Data Collective two years ago after previously working for consulting firms RiskQuest and Third Horizon.
According to its founder, Amsterdam Data Collective is a firm that combines the “business acumen of a management consultant with the problem-solving abilities of a data scientist”, enabling it to help clients with end-to-end data science matters.
“We are a full stack agency and support clients during every step of a data science initiative, from advising on data science strategy to setting up complex data infrastructures, developing state-of-the-art machine-learning algorithms and designing dashboards that provide real-time management information.” Ultimately, the firm “develops practical applications that deliver smarter insights,” said the company founder.
Having worked on engagements at the likes of Aegon, ABN Amro, Credit Agricole, NIBC, Raiffisen Bank and Vivat, the firm’s sweet spot lies in quantitative risk modeling in the financial services sector, but Amsterdam Data Collective also supports clients in the public, healthcare and retail sectors.
As part of the new setup, which goes into effect as of January 1st 2020, Govert van Koningsveld – an Associate Partner at Solid Professionals – will join Van der Woerdt at the helm to become co-lead of Amsterdam Data Collective. Van Koningsveld, who previously served consultancies PwC and RGP, has been affiliated with Solid Professionals for some five years and founded its data science wing together with Casper Rutjes.
For Solid Professionals, which is based in Utrecht and has around 25 consultants, the deal means that it will refocus its activities to what it always has been doing from the very start in 2007: finance and risk services to banks, insurance companies, pension funds and other financial services institutions.
