Warburg Pincus commits $75 mln to Blue Yonder

Warburg Pincus has committed $75 million to Blue Yonder, which provides data analytics and predictive applications. Warburg joins existing investors the OTTO group and Blue Yonder’s founders.

Press Release

Blue Yonder, a leading provider of Big Data analytics and Predictive Applications, today announced that an affiliate of Warburg Pincus, a global private equity firm focused on growth investing, has committed $75 million to support the Company’s further growth and expansion.

Blue Yonder is the leading European player in the rapidly growing and developing market for Predictive Applications. The Company is focused on Software-as-a-Service (“SaaS”) based delivery of Predictive Applications embedded in its customers’ core processes enabling companies to drive decisions from their data using scientifically‐based and innovative technologies such as predictive modelling and machine‐learning. Blue Yonder’s key applications provide customers with a number of benefits resulting in significant cost savings and operational efficiencies primarily based on accurate real time forecasts which enable automated decision-making such as demand forecasting, dynamic pricing, replenishment, churn prediction, and predictive maintenance.

Since its foundation in 2008, as a joint venture of the Otto Group and the former CERN Scientist Prof. Dr. Michael Feindt, Blue Yonder has built a strong foothold in the European retail and consumer product goods markets with customers including the Otto Group, Next, dm, EAT, Bauhaus and Kaiser’s Tengelmann. The Company has recently expanded into other verticals including industrial and transport, and logistics with customers including Eurotunnel, Lufthansa Systems and Bosch.

Uwe Weiss, CEO at Blue Yonder said, “We are very excited about the large and rapidly growing market for Predictive Applications and see many opportunities developing alongside the rise of the Industrial Internet of Things. The opportunity for Blue Yonder lies not only in providing our clients with significant enhanced predictive forecasts, but also in demonstrating how our solutions can deliver meaningful results when deployed in continuous real-time production environments. Going forward Big Data analytics will be used to improve operational efficiencies and to transform business models, changing the way our clients can compete in the marketplace.”

Joseph Schull, a Managing Director at Warburg Pincus commented, “We are delighted to partner with the Blue Yonder management to accelerate the company’s growth and development. Blue Yonder has developed innovative and differentiated technology to serve blue-chip customers and is led by a creative and entrepreneurial management team. We believe that there is significant scope to grow the business on a global basis as more and more corporates understand the value of harnessing their data assets for predictive analytics and business-decision automation.”

Warburg Pincus is a leading private equity investor in technology, media and tech-enabled services companies (“TMT”). In the year-to-date, Warburg Pincus has made 13 investments in TMT and since inception Warburg Pincus has invested more than $15 billion in TMT. In particular, Warburg Pincus has been a leading investor in enterprise software and analytics-driven businesses, including investments in Nuance Communications, Kognitio, WhiteCross, Manugistics, and Loyalty Management. Other leading global communications services, software and technology-enabled services investments have included BEA Systems, Bharti Airtel, Coyote Logistics, Endurance International Group, easycash, FacilitySource, FIS, GrubHub, iParadigms Holdings LLC, NeuStar, New Breed, RDA Microelectronics Inc., Service Repair Solutions, UGS Capital Corp., VERITAS Software and Ziggo.

Following the investment, Warburg Pincus will become an additional shareholder in the Company joining existing investors, the OTTO group and the founders.

Correction: A previous version of this story included an incorrect spelling of Blue Yonder. The story has been updated.