HCLTech unit to acquire French software firm Zeenea for 24 mn euros

Indian company says acquisition will strengthen data and analytics business

HCLSoftware, the software business division of Indian IT services giant HCLTech, said on Friday it is acquiring Zeenea, a Paris-based firm providing data catalog and governance solutions, for Euro 24 million (around Rs 218 crore).

The acquisition is expected to close in September 2024.

HCLSoftware said the acquisition will strengthen its data and analytics business called Actian. HCLSoftware said Actian has seen strong growth in hybrid data management and integration in the last few years. Adding metadata management, data catalog and governance capabilities will help Actian customers.

“Metadata management is becoming critical for our customers to accelerate their GenAI initiatives across business functions,” said Kalyan Kumar, chief product officer, HCLSoftware, referring to generative artificial intelligence.

“It will enable HCLSoftware to offer a unified data intelligence solution that will [empower] enterprises to discover, govern, connect, manage and better leverage data in their data engineering and GenAI journeys,” said Kumar.

Zeenea provides a data discovery platform that supports metadata management applications from search and exploration to data catalog, lineage, governance, compliance and enterprise data marketplace. It earned Euro 2.6 million as revenue at the end of December 31, 2023.

"Incorporating Zeenea’s capabilities with HCLSoftware will deliver a differentiated solution for customers,” said Luc Legardeur, chief executive officer and co-founder of Zeenea. “Combining HCLSoftware data analytics, database and data management solutions with our knowledge graph, data catalog and enterprise data marketplace will offer customers a tailored approach to data management.”