Kea & Partners attains new capabilities with Souffl and Veltys

Kea & Partners has in the first five months of 2023 completed two acquisitions, providing the firm with entry into two new market segments: data science strategy, and design and product innovation.

As part of its 5-year ‘Darewin’ strategy, Kea & Partners is on a growth path to become a €100 million consulting group by 2025 with 400+ employees. Today, the management consulting firm has around 250 consultants and staff.

Inorganic growth has been an integral part of the growth realisation plan. Since the launch of its strategy around four years ago, the French-origin player has acquired a series of smaller counterparts, including MySézame and Nuova Vista (2022), Ylios (2021), and Arkos (2020).

Adding to its deal tally, yesterday Kea & Partners announced the purchase of Paris-based design studio Souffl, hot on the heels of the January 2023 acquisition of Veltys, which specialises in data intelligence and data science services.

Founded in 2014 by Fabien Fumeron, Nicolas Baumgartner and Arnaud Carrette, Souffl is a specialist in experience design across customer and employee experiences, and product innovation.

Souffl helps companies “invent and build with their clients of the future” in mind, with its roster of clients including likes of BNP Paribas, Adecco, Credit Agricole, Manutan, SNCF, and Suez.

“Souffl’s expertise in the field of design and innovation enriches our ability to ‘break the rules’ and imagine and develop new value propositions or future market segments for our clients,” said Arnaud Gangloff, senior partner and president of Kea & Partners.

The larger acquisition of Veltys – which has 50 staff, as opposed to Souffl’s 12 staff – brings deep expertise at the intersection of management decision-making and data science. The two companies had already been working together for several years, with Kea & Partners now upping its minority stake into a majority interest.

Founded in 2013 by Philippe Février, Veltys brings together capabilities in economics, statistics, and machine learning to provide fact-based advice to management-level clients. The firm works for organisations across sectors, with a focus on consumer goods, financial services, and sports.

“Data is nowadays at the heart of business transformation,” said Gangloff. “Having worked together with Veltys successfully since 2018, we wanted to take our collaboration to the next level. For us, this step creates a strategically important new value proposition.”

Outside of home base France, Kea & Partners also has offices in Africa and Latin America.