Accenture buys large Italian player Intellera Consulting

Accenture has expanded its Italian consultancy business with the acquisition of Intellera Consulting, one of the country’s largest consultancies in the public sector landscape.

Founded in 2021 following a private equity-backed buyout from PwC, Intellera Consulting is one of Italy’s largest homegrown consulting firms, with than 1,400 employees across 13 offices, including in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Napoli.

Intellera Consulting provides a range of management consulting and digital services to Italy’s public service, including ministries, national bodies, federal agencies, regional and municipality governments, as well as healthcare institutions and universities.

Mauro Macchi, chairman and chief executive officer of Accenture in Italy, said the firm is delighted to welcome Intellera Consulting to its ranks. “Intellera Consulting is widely recognized and respected for its strategic, advisory and technology services for public administration and is an excellent fit with Accenture.”

“As we continue to focus on serving modern, responsible, citizen-oriented government, integrating new talent and skills from Intellera Consulting will expand our capabilities to deliver innovation and transformation for our public service clients.”

The acquisition continues Accenture’s inorganic growth strategy in Italy, with the deal coming months after the acquisitions of Customer Management IT, SirfinPA, and Ammagamma.

Intellera Consulting meanwhile also had turned to deals to accelerate its growth, snapping up Trust4Value (2023) and more recently PredictBy (2024).

Mirco Dilda, partner at Gyrus Capital, said the investor is “proud to have supported Intellera Consulting in its transformation into a market-leading provider of digitalisation and innovation to the Italian public sector.”

The deal, which was advised on by among others OC&C Strategy Consultants, marks an attractive exit for Gyrus Capital. When Intellera Consulting cut loose from PwC it had around 700 staff, today it is double that size.

Andrea Gabardo, chief executive officer of Intellera Consulting, said the joining of forces with Accenture will add value to both its clients and own people.

“Helping our clients achieve their transformation goals and offering the best professional and personal development opportunities to our colleagues are the principles that have guided us from day one; joining the Accenture network means generating incredible synergies in creating value for our clients and multiplying growth opportunities for our people.”

Earlier this year, Accenture acquired another large public sector-focused consulting firm: Arηs Group (which has 2,300+ people across Europe including a team in Italy).