BCG buys AI software firm Formation
Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has acquired Formation, a San Francisco-based startup that provides an artificial intelligence-powered, dynamic offer optimization and personalization solution.
Formation in 2015 spun off from BCG Ventures, the consultancy’s corporate innovation and digital business building division. The firm’s dynamic offer software enables retail, grocery, and ecommerce brands to send millions of one-to-one offers. The Formation platform utilizes first-part customer data to create offers that are personalized, tracked, measured, and optimized through machine learning.
Formation says it has driven more than $2 billion in incremental revenue for client companies. The firm has more than 60 employees, according to LinkedIn.
BCG’s acquisition of Formation will build on its prior investments in AI-enabled software.
“Our clients are increasingly focused on AI investments that create sustainable shareholder value for their businesses,” said Sylvain Duranton, global leader of BCG X, the firm's new tech-build and design business unit. “With this acquisition, we are expanding our ability to deliver technology that increases customer lifetime value for our clients and the speed at which we can develop cutting-edge software at BCG.”
BCG earlier this year launched BCG X, combining BCG Ventures, BCG Gamma (AI and data business unit), and BCG Platinion (IT product, design, and engineering) into a single unit with more than 2,500 global professionals.
“Being part of the BCG family gives us an incredible opportunity to scale our long-term vision of making commerce personal,” said Christian Selchau-Hansen, co-founder and CEO of Formation. “Together, BCG and Formation will accelerate the digital transformation of leading brands by unlocking the power of their data to engage their customers at a personal level.”
BCG earlier this summer partnered with Jupiter to add its climate analytics to the BCG ClimateImpact AI platform – which helps clients assess transition and physical climate risks, prioritize areas of risk abatement, and evaluate risk/cost trade-offs to optimize business risk reduction at the lowest possible cost.