Investor BGF has invested 拢2.3m in business transformation and advanced data science consultancy Optima Partners.
Optima Partners is an Edinburgh-headquartered data science and transformation consultancy founded in 2013, with offices in London and Bristol.
It offers design-led customer and digital transformation services to clients across the customer, carbon and health sectors.
Using machine learning, the company identifies opportunities to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of customer engagement, marketing and servicing to maximise client return on investment.
Following recent strong trading performance, Optima Partners achieved 55 per cent year-on-year growth, delivering 拢5.75m in full year revenue at the end of June 2022, with a headcount of 44.
BGF鈥檚 investment will now boost the company鈥檚 aim of scaling the business to 100 employees, investing in SaaS services and expanding into new markets and sectors.
Karen Thomas-Bland has also been appointed as a non-executive chair at Optima Partners as the听result of an introduction from听BGF鈥檚听Talent Network, which is the UK鈥檚 largest pool of non-executive directors.
Investing alongside BGF, Thomas-Bland brings significant consulting and data science experience to Optima Partners with former roles including partner of strategy and transformation at IBM Global, executive director of strategy & transformation at KPMG, and providing buyside investment assessment for Accenture and EY.
Alan Crawley, chief executive officer at Optima Partners,听said:听鈥淲e pride ourselves on the calibre of our people, and Optima Partners鈥� ability to convert that into innovative customer-focussed marketing and servicing solutions for our clients.
鈥淏GF鈥檚 investment will help us scale our business, allowing us to serve more customers. Enhancing the application of advanced data sciences, alongside the practical application of AI and machine learning, are other key pillars in our growth and expansion plans鈥�
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Euan Baxter, investor at BGF, said:听鈥淥ptima Partners uses data and machine learning in a way that can revolutionise marketing and customer experience, and this investment from BGF is designed to help the business achieve further scale.
鈥淩ooted in Edinburgh as a centre of data excellence, the company has built on strong academic foundations to prove its credentials through innovative work with some of the biggest names in financial services, energy and pharmaceuticals.鈥�
Thomas-Bland said:听鈥淥ptima Partners鈥� approach combines key elements of my previous consulting and data science expertise.鈥�
BGF is a long-term patient investor, making initial investments between 拢1m to 拢15m for a minority equity stake. The investment in Optima Partners follows a record year for BGF in Scotland, having invested close to 拢60m in 2021 in a diverse range of sectors, from technology to healthcare to consumer goods.