Air New Zealand and Aimia Acquire Kiwi Analytics Business

Air New Zealand and Aimia Acquire Kiwi Analytics Business

Air New Zealand and Aimia, a Canada based data-driven marketing and loyalty analytics company have today announced the joint purchase of the 11Ants Analytics business.

11Ants Analytics was born out of Waikato University research and was founded and developed by WaikatoLink, the University’s commercial arm.

11Ants has developed an innovative cloud-based retail analytics platform. The solution allows retailers such as supermarkets, fuel retailers, home improvement, fashion, pharmacies and department stores to obtain actionable insights from their raw transactional and customer data in order to understand their customers better and create deeper customer relationships.

The joint venture will see 11Ants Analytics’ business expand into the 20 countries Aimia operates in, across several industries including the retail and travel sectors.

Hamish Rumbold, General Manager Customer Value at Air New Zealand, says the airline has a strong focus on keeping customers at the core of its business and investing in the things they truly value.

“Investing in new technologies and finding new ways to innovate enables us to take this to the next level, with decisions about our business and the products and services we offer our customers based on data insights from those same customers,” Mr Rumbold says.

“Businesses have a lot of information about their customers’ buying behaviour but often don’t know how to use it to improve the experience for the customer or the performance of their business.

“In an increasingly digital world customers expect the businesses they frequent to provide them with a personalised experience. 11Ants Analytics’ technology enables businesses to listen, understand and act with a much deeper understanding of their customers.”

Marc Allsop, Senior Vice President, Global Business Development at Aimia, says that “although this is a small tuck-in investment for Aimia, this collaboration presents a significant opportunity to develop game changing new products, including a solution that is specific to the travel industry, providing Air New Zealand and other travel clients with the data analytics capabilities needed to provide a more personalised customer experience.

“Working with an innovative airline such as Air New Zealand and the 11Ants Analytics team immediately adds to Aimia’s deep global data analytics and product capabilities, and is a fantastic opportunity for us to develop new products for the untapped travel sector.”

11Ants Analytics’ Chief Executive Officer Tom Fuyala says the acquisition by globally respected industry leaders Aimia and Air New Zealand provides validation of 11Ants Analytics’ unique approach and speaks to the incredible opportunity to expand into the high potential travel market.

“Businesses all over the world have an appetite for customer analytics, but typically they don’t have the know-how or the budget to execute. 11Ants Analytics’ solutions make customer science accessible, affordable and immediately deployable,” Mr Fuyala says.

WaikatoLink’s Chief Executive Duncan Mackintosh says “the purchase by two large global companies is a wonderful success story for New Zealand, and particularly for 11Ants Analytics and its people and for major shareholders WaikatoLink and Endeavour Capital.

“The investment by Air New Zealand and Aimia offers significant opportunities to accelerate the growth of 11Ants Analytics’ existing products globally and to continue to innovate into the future.”

The terms of the purchase agreement remain confidential.

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