Zilliant has acquired In Mind Cloud, a Munich-headquartered sales platform vendor that helps manufacturers digitize their sales processes. In Mind Cloud delivers a CPQ platform with an interactive 2D/3D visualisation, a configurator and support for a product and service catalogue. It includes a combination of CRM, CPQ and eCommerce functionality. The platform also supports deep integration to both Salesforce and SAP.
For Zilliant this brings a powerful tool to extend its industry-leading pricing management, pricing optimization, and revenue intelligence technology. With a specialised industry vertical application that should help it attract more manufacturers to its platform.
With ongoing supply chain issues leading to frequent price changes, the ability to ensure that the right pricing information feeds into the B2B commerce platform immediately. This helps ensure that manufacturers can maintain profitability levels no matter the fluctuations.
The acquisition will also help to accelerate the Zilliant presence in Europe. Adding employees and offices in Germany, and Singapore and a small presence in the US. According to LinkedIn, that firm has over 50 employees, though only around 30 have LinkedIn profiles.
The announcement comes as Zilliant closed one of its biggest ever quarters with over 75% bookings growth y/y. It has also extended its European presence. Zilliant has doubled its business in the last year, and this acquisition adds to its increased focus on German expansion. It has already achieved over 500% booking in the country. Though Zilliant did not reveal the base or final value of this amount.
Pascal Yammine, Zilliant CEO, said, “The acquisition of In Mind Cloud allows us to accelerate our vision to help customers put pricing at the heart of their business. Price is the most important part of every deal, but without a comprehensive solution to put the right price in front of the customer, it’s difficult to close complex deals fast. The combined platform will be unlike anything in the market and help manufacturers and distributors solve emerging pricing challenges like omnichannel commerce.”
In Mind Cloud
Founded in 2021, In Mind Cloud, received a Series B funding round of €16 million from Yttrium, who also backed the Series A round. This deal provides an exit for Yttrium, but no deals of the deal were disclosed. Zilliant will bring its solution to a wider audience and expertise in Oracle integration. It will be interesting to see whether this is a development they choose.
In Mind Cloud was developed to offer a solution that was both easy to use and could meet the complex requirements that manufacturers have for their configurations.
Dr. Christian Cuske, Founder and Executive Chairman of In Mind Cloud, commented, “There was a disconnect in the market about complexity for manufacturers. Product complexity can be a competitive advantage, but it’s detrimental to a company if it’s complex to do business with them. Manufacturers had to choose a CPQ that could either handle their product complexities but was challenging to navigate, or one that was easy to use, until In Mind Cloud changed that paradigm.”
While In Mind Cloud has grown a successful business with customers such as Silverline, Interplex, Arvedi, Netafim and Benteler it also realised that it is only part of the software architecture that manufacturers need today. Supply chain disruption has meant that the manual effort required to keep pricing up to date is a challenge. The acquisition of the firm by Zilliant, therefore, makes perfect sense to provide a complete pricing, CPQ and commerce solution for manufacturers.
Cuske added, “On our mission to revolutionize how manufacturers sell, we saw the increasing importance of the pricing lifecycle. Deal configuration through CPQ or self-service and the complexities of the full pricing lifecycle must work in conjunction. Zilliant’s leadership in manufacturing and distribution makes bringing our companies together an ideal next chapter in the In Mind Cloud growth story.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean
This is a strategic acquisition by Zilliant; it extends the capabilities of its platform, meeting the needs of manufacturers especially. But will also add value to distribution businesses. For Zilliant, it also gives it a second office in Germany. This will help with its expansion in both Europe and Asia.
Madison Dearborn Partners, the private equity firm that acquired the company in 2021, backed the deal. Scott Pasquini, Managing Director of Madison Dearborn Partners, commented, “Zilliant has been the industry leader in price and revenue optimization, and we remain excited about their long-term growth trajectory. Together, In Mind Cloud and Zilliant will enable customers to manage the entire pricing lifecycle from a single platform, which will help accelerate profitable growth.”
The question now is how Zilliant will merge the two firms and how the products will fit together. What will the combined product look like? And what will happen to the existing In Mind Cloud customers? Will the solution be supported indefinitely, or will they need to move to the Zilliant platform in time?
