Global consulting firm Accenture has acquired Kogentix, a Schaumburg, Ill.-based data analytics and artificial intelligence company, in an effort to get its clients ahead of the big data curve.
The 220-employee company provides services that help organizations make better decisions with their data. The deal, which closed Thursday, will improve Accenture's ability to help its clients build out their data analytics capabilities, said Kingston Smith, managing director of Accenture's Applied Intelligence practice.
"If you think about the clients we serve here in the Chicago area, they're not digital native companies," Smith said. "(This) is where they're headed."
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Kogentix will be folded into the Accenture Applied Intelligence practice, which uses artificial intelligence to help clients. Accenture is based in Ireland, but the professional services firm employs about 5,600 people in Chicago. It opened an innovation center in Ogilvie Transportation Center about two years ago with a maker space, a design studio and a hologram that greets guests at the door.
Kogentix has about 50 employees in its Schaumburg headquarters. The company's CEO and co-founder Boyd Davis said he expects the employees eventually will move downtown to Accenture's innovation hub.
Davis and his co-founders will become managing directors at Accenture.
"The market is just growing so fast and the opportunity is so big, we really wanted to be part of an organization that can help us scale," he said. "With this acquisition, we actually joined arguably the market leader in the space."
