Eclair Group acquired by Digital Workforce in €2.1m deal

Irish automation company Eclair Group has been acquired by Digital Workforce Services in a deal worth up to €2.1 million.

The deal, which will strengthen Finnish-based Digital Workforce Services’ business in Ireland and Britain, includes an initial consideration of €1.23 million, with an additional payment of up to €980,000 payable based on future performance in 2022 to 2023.

It will also see the expansion of Digital Workforce’s client base internationally, including in financial services and healthcare

Founded in 2017, the Eclair Group is one of Ireland’s leading intelligent automation companies. It provides consulting and delivery services, including the establishment, implementation and scaling of automation practices and solutions. The Dublin-headquartered company has clients in Ireland, Britain and the United States in the financial services, transport, retail, telecoms and healthcare sectors.

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As part of the deal, Eclair Group co-founder and chief executive Kevin O’Donnell will become country manager for Digital Workforce Ireland.

“We’ve been partnering with Digital Workforce for almost three years and sharing skills and resources knowledge as a partnership,” said Mr O’Donnell. “We were approached several times last year in terms of merger and acquisition, but certainly for me, a very natural fit was Digital Workforce.”

Mr O’Donnell said there were a number of factors that attracted the company to Digital Workforce.

“From a business viewpoint, what attracted us was the heavy investment in automation innovation, several tools and products which leapfrogged us, I would say in terms of capability by number of years. I also think the depth of experience, the range of the countries that they work in, and the fact instinctively — which I think has been proven right now — it’s going to be a very good cultural fit.”

Digital Workforce completed its IPO last December and has continued to grow its business, with mergers and acquisitions expected to play a significant role in future growth. The agreement with the Eclair Group is the first step of this plan.

“What we’re trying to do is to help our customers progress automation in their businesses; that means that in our case, the automation of knowledge workers. Our mission as a company is to help our customers provide their employees with more meaningful work,” said Mika Vainio-Mattila, chief executive of Digital Workforce.

“We believe strongly that there is a revolution going on whereby more and more work is going to be performed by automated digital entities — we call them digital workers — and they are enabled by these technologies like robotic process automation (RPA) and artificial intelligence.”