ICON Corporate Finance Advises data Governance Provider Zeenea on its Acquisition by HCLSoftware

Paris-based Zeenea provides an intelligent data discovery, data governance and enterprise data marketplace platform that supports metadata management applications from search and exploration to data catalogue, lineage, governance and compliance.

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Its platform is powered by an adaptive knowledge graph that enables organisations to democratise data access and generate a 360-degree view of their assets and the relationships between them.

The acquisition will enable HCLSoftware to enhance its Data & Analytics business – Actian – accelerating the GenAI and Data Engineering roadmap of its customers by adding powerful data catalogue, lineage and governance solutions.

"ICON team, you rock,” said Luc Legardeur, CEO and Co-founder, Zeenea. “You have guided me from considering an exit to actually closing. You all at ICON have been very sharp, process driven, precise, and your advice was consistently and absolutely accurate.”

Kalyan Kumar, Chief Product Officer, HCLSoftware said, “Metadata management is becoming critical for our customers to accelerate their GenAI initiatives across business functions, Zeenea will further accelerate the growth in the data and analytics space for HCLSoftware. It will enable HCLSoftware to offer a unified data intelligence solution that will power enterprises to discover, govern, connect, manage and better leverage data in their data engineering and GenAI journeys."

Marc Potter, CEO at Actian said, "To become data-driven, organizations of all sizes need data governance to ensure the most effective and efficient use of quality data throughout its life cycle, With Zeenea as part of our portfolio, Actian offers customers a complete data ecosystem – making Actian a one-stop shop for all things data. Together, we will help our customers propel their GenAI and analytics initiatives forward by boosting confidence in data preparation and enhancing data readiness."

Ben Kolada, ICON’s Head of AI & DataTech Investment Banking, said: “At ICON, we are proud to have advised such a disruptor in the data governance, data catalogue, and data lineage space on this strategic acquisition by HCLSoftware. Backed by a team of hardworking innovators and proven at demanding enterprise customer accounts including Merck, Groupe BPCE, Stellantis, and Renault, we expect Zeenea will be hugely successful with the larger resources and expertise HCL provides.”

The transaction bolsters ICON’s extensive track record across transaction types in AI & DataTech. ICON’s deal experience in this sector alone includes advising:

• data transformation scaleup VaultSpeed on their fundraise from Octopus Ventures;
• AI automation provider ForePaaS on their strategic acquisition by OVHcloud;
• data management automation pioneer TimeXtender leading up to their funding from Monterro;
• and, weather analytics startup Fathom Global on their strategic investment from US credit ratings giant Moody’s.

The disclosed revenue multiple valuation of 9.2x proves ICON’s ability to close deals at above-market valuations even in challenging market cycles.

About ICON Corporate Finance

With offices in London, Bristol and San Francisco, ICON specialises in M&A and fundraising internationally, working closely with the global M&A, Venture Capital, Private Equity and CVC communities. Among its many deals, ICON has advised on exits to the like of Accenture, Crayon, Aptean, IQVIA, Aviva, NTT, Syniti, Telstra, and completed fundraising with JP Morgan, Synova, BGF, Octopus Ventures, YFM, Mobeus and Moodys. 

About Zeenea

Founded in 2017 in Paris (France), Zeenea was created by a team of three data enthusiasts with a vision to make data accessible to everyone in an organization.

Zeenea’s mission is to provide data professionals with an all-in-one platform that simplifies the discovery, documentation, understanding, and trust of all enterprise data assets. From advanced search capabilities and metadata management to governance and data stewardship initiatives, its metadata hub enables the entire organization to unlock data value for all use cases, all users, and across all data sources.