West Monroe acquires data science consultancy Two Six Capital
West Monroe, a national management consulting firm, has acquired Two Six Capital, a San Francisco-based data science consultancy specializing in private equity. The deal closed on November 30.
Founded in 2013, Two Six leverages more than 25 years of intellectual property and research in data science from Wharton to help private equity firms make smarter investments decisions. The firm uses proprietary AI-driven technology to understand and more accurately project the drivers of revenue – supporting PE deal teams, corporate boards, and management teams across the deal lifecycle.
During due diligence, the company’s data science approach can help de-risk investments by ensuring companies make their short-term numbers. Post-investment, Two Six helps clients quantify upside between best and worst customers, SKUs, and channel segments. And when portfolio companies are primed for a sale, the company can help sellers in vendor due diligence, identifying the optimal time for exit.
Two Six has analyzed $161 billion in transaction-level revenue data and overseen $33+ billion in enterprise value of investments closed.
Two Six also advises and co-invests with private equity firms on carveouts, acquisitions, take-privates, and IPOs.
West Monroe’s acquisition will strengthen the firm’s private equity advisory practice, and will provide a data-science-informed approach to advising private equity firms and their portfolio companies. This is especially useful as the post-pandemic environment has eroded confidence in many projections.
The deal will see founders and managing partners Ian Picache and Sajjad Jaffer join West Monroe as senior directors, while head of data science Joseph Davin will join as an innovation fellow. The firm’s team of a dozen professionals will join West Monroe’s San Francisco office.
Picache will also join the investment committee of West Monroe Capital, the investing arm of West Monroe, where he will co-invest alongside private equity clients.
“Two Six Capital has built an empirical value creation analytics engine that can predict future outcomes with a high degree of precision,” said Matt Sondag, managing director and leader of West Monroe’s private equity practice. “With a spotlight on value creation to justify elevated valuations, the need for data-driven insights to gain a competitive advantage has never been more important to our private equity clients and their portfolio companies.”
Two Six’s proprietary technology will join West Monroe’s Intellio suite as “Intellio Predict,” allowing for the ingestion of billions of data points to project business drivers that power investment decisions and value creation.
“We share a common vision around data science, analytics, and value creation and are thrilled to combine our intellectual property with the experienced team at West Monroe to broaden our work across an outstanding client portfolio,” said Jaffer.
Chicago-based West Monroe recently acquired Pace Harmon, a DC area-based IT and business services transformation and outsourcing advisory firm. The transaction added 75 employees in McLean, VA, San Francisco, and Chicago.
West Monroe has approximately 1,300 employees in eight US offices.
