Global Excellence 2020

18 Acquisition International - Global Excellence 2020 Acquisition International - Issue 7 2020 49 Rapidly Expanding Founded in 2010, Semantix is a reference company in Latin America for all things big data, analytics, and artificial intelligence. Following on from their success in the Global Excellence Awards 2020, we got in touch with Leonardo Santos, CEO, to find out more. s a leading figure in the development of open-source software solutions, Semantix operates throughout Latin America and the United States with offices in Sao Paulo (headquarters), Miami, Mexico City and Bogota. To start, Leonardo offers more insight into the firm’s specialisms and the client base they typically serve. “Leading the way, we offer data-driven solutions, including proprietary products, consulting, professional engineering and data science services. With around the clock support for mission critical operations, certification training, as well as products focused on business performance in specific verticals, the company positions itself as a one-stop-shop, focusing on value generation. In addition, with the best-of-breed technology products for data management and the generation of insights for decision making, process optimisation and the improvement of customer profitability, there is a reason why many view us as the go to people for reducing the time of projects from months to days. “To demonstrate our commitment to innovation, we developed OpenGalaxy: a technology platform for big data analytics and AI, multi-cloud and on-premises, API-first, with infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) subscription models. Moreover, we have 60+ technological alliances with technology companies to offer, in an integrated manner, the best package of solutions to our customers. It has 350+ employees, 85% of whom are certified technical professionals in market reference technologies.” Since the beginning, the goal of Semantix has been to organise, process and analyse data in order to produce insightful and disruptive information, aiming to generate value, innovation, and digital transformation. Moreover, as Leonardo goes on to explain, the firm’s values have been key to their success over the years. “Our values include putting people first, having a passion for what we do, inspiration, freedom with responsibility, collaboration and innovation. These values have not changed at any point, however this year, we do plan to refine them in order to cope with important lessons learned and strategic paths taken towards data driven and data centric models. Essentially, we are driving companies to data centric models through smart solutions, thus impacting positively on billions of lives with data.” As a data-driven company by design, the firm are viewed by many as a truly one-stop-shop for big data and AI based solutions. Moreover, as Leonardo points out with their bespoke approach and talented team members, the firm can deliver solutions for most industries. “Typically, we offer business performance solutions in strategic verticals and we count on our 350+member team to improve our products and services while establishing relationships with the most recognised technology vendors in the field.” In its early days Semantix started off small but over time the firm have been able to achieve sustainable growth and success all while A encountering several challenges as Leonardo goes on to explain. “In the last few years, we have been facing rising competition in the space, with new challengers and large incumbents increasing the dispute for talent, including ours. This of course has been particularly challenging in a country that graduate not enough technicians and engineers each year. However, as a firm we have worked with creativity to better recruit and maintain our talent, who contribute significantly towards the overall goals of the business.” With a results-orientated culture, each employee’s contribution is valued by Semantix and as Leonardo goes on to explain, this is one of the factors which has seen Semantix become a respected leader in big data and AI based solutions. “Each one of our employees have taken on some form of ownership which has made it simpler to take decisions based on data, taking care of clients’ interests and values as well.” As a rapidly growing company Semantix have doubled their number of employees over the last year, but as Leonardo further explains, the firm had to maintain their level of recruitment all in such a short space of time which brought its own challenges. “Having to recruit so many people at once meant we had to redesign our approach to recruiting, in order to guarantee that we had the best technical skillset and cultural fit in the process. To guarantee the high-tech standards of our people, we have implemented the Semantix Academy where we tutor all the latest technologies to all our employees.” Finally, Leonardo comments on the future of Semantix and provides us with more insight into some of its future plans. “Currently, we are entering a new growth phase, by including inorganic transactions in the pipeline. Ultimately, we expect this to speed up the execution of our business plan and allow us to explore cross selling opportunities with the clients of the acquired companies. We have already started this thread by acquiring FastOmni, a data driven omnichannel retail solution for ecommerce, and Tradimus, a health- tech company serving health service providers, health insurers and operators. “Heading forward, we are keen to remain at the forefront of the industry and we hope through our alliances with technology companies, we will continue to offer the most advanced AI-based market solutions.” Company Name: Semantix Contact Name: Leonardo Santos Telephone Number: +55 11 963934689 Web Address: www.semantix.com.br “...as a firm we have worked with creativity to better recruit and maintain our talent, who contribute significantly towards the overall goals of the business.” Feb20394 2020’s Leading Innovators in Big Data & AI-Based Solutions Platforms – Brazil