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Sydney-based IT consulting firm Cloudwerx has made its first acquisition since a $7 million investment from CVC Group in 2022, purchasing Brisbane-headquartered Lightfold for an undisclosed sum.
Lightfold specialises in what is known as the 'modern data stack', gleaning insights from a collection of next-generation cloud data and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, and assisting customers as they replace business intelligence tools and utilise large language models (LLMs).
Founded in 2020 by John Cosgrove, a former global lead at Accenture for smart customer relationship management (CRM) solutions using Salesforce Einstein Analytics, Lightfold boasts customers in a range of sectors such as financial services, telecommunications, retail, consumer goods and high tech.
Also a relatively young company, Cloudwerx was founded in 2018 with a remit to harness cutting-edge technologies to lift the productivity of its customers, with a particular focus on automation solutions and integrating with platforms including Salesforce, MuleSoft, UiPath, Azure, AWS and DocuSign.
Co-founded by Miha Remec, Roger Burgess and Chris Baldock, Cloudwerx is an APAC Salesforce Summit partner and targets mid-market and enterprise businesses in the retail and consumer goods, financial services, high tech, health, and life sciences industries
The company also has a history of collaboration with Lightfold.
"Lightfold has been a long-term strategic partner of Cloudwerx; the acquisition complements our strategic investment in data analytics and AI technologies," says Burgess, who is Cloudwerx's non-executive chairman.
"The combination of the two businesses will enable Cloudwerx to unlock operational efficiencies and deliver insight that our customers had never thought possible.
"Together we are excited to be offering real-world data analytics and AI solutions as one highly specialised team."
Cosgrove, Lightfold's founder, claims his company's tools combined with Cloudwerx's team of expert consultants will offer 'the most advanced business solutions on the market'.
"The future of competitive business advantage lies in the ability to utilise cloud-based systems that integrate customer information to surface insights and inform business decisions," he says.
"At the heart of this transformation are pioneers like Cloudwerx and Lightfold, whose complementary strengths open up new possibilities."
Cloudwerx CEO Toby Wilcock says the acquisition of Lightfold will unlock new and exciting opportunities for customers, who can now access AI and customer data tools to drive organisational improvement.
"This partnership is set to redefine the landscape of tech consulting, by providing our clients with a broader range of advanced, data-driven services to maintain a competitive edge," Wilcock says.
"Both companies share a vision for driving business transformation through advanced technology, making this partnership a natural fit."
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