HCL Technologies is acquiring Confinale AG, a digital banking and wealth management consulting specialist for the Avaloq software platform. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
This is technology M&A deal number 454 that ChannelE2E has covered so far in 2022. See more than 1,000 technology M&A deals involving MSPs, MSSPs & IT service providers listed here.
HCL, based in Noida, India, specializes in software services. The company has offices in 50 countries and over 208,000 employees as of May 2022.
The Opportunity: Digital Transformation for Banks
Confinale, founded in 2012, has 72 employees listed on LinkedIn. The company offers IT consulting in the banking and wealth management sector. Confinale is one of only four Avalog Premium implementation partners. Indeed, Confinale became an Avaloq partner in 2015 and Premium Implementation Partner in 2020 -- promoting wealth advisory, compliance and regulatory solutions. Moreover, Confinale was named Implementation Partner of the Year 2020 and 2021, Avalog indicates on its website.
Confinale has offices in Switzerland including Zurich, Zug and Geneva; as well as Düsseldorf and London.
The acquisition builds upon HCL’s recently expanded global partnership with Avaloq and its acquisition of German IT consulting company gbs in association with apoBank in December 2021, the buyer indicated.
FinTech M&A: HCL, Coninale and Avaloq Executive Perspectives
In a prepared statement about the deal, Confinale CEO Roland Staub said:
“Becoming part of HCL is an exciting new chapter for Confinale. We strongly believe in the need for banking expertise combined with software competence and HCL is the perfect fit for this. It is a truly global player with strong heritage in the financial services sector. HCL’s reach will enable us to further our growth and at the same time expose our team to new learning and innovation opportunities.”
Added Rahul Singh, president of financial services and digital process operations, HCL Technologies:
“There is significant disruption taking place in global wealth management and this means an opportunity for technology-led innovation. This acquisition significantly strengthens HCL’s digital wealth and asset management capabilities and expands our presence in the heart of the global investment banking sector. We welcome the team from Confinale and look forward to continuing to drive digital banking innovation alongside Avaloq.”
Concluded Martin Greweldinger, co-CEO of Avaloq:
“At Avaloq we welcome the coming together of two of our key strategic partners. Both HCL and Confinale have considerable domain knowledge in financial services and deep understanding of our technology. We see the combination as immensely beneficial as Confinale has strong implementation credentials, including being awarded as best implementation partner in 2020 and 2021. We believe that this coming together will help accelerate digital wealth transformation for our clients and in turn increase the pace of adoption of Avaloq’s products and services globally."
HCL: Additional IT Services Acquisitions
HCL has remained relatively active on the M&A front. Noteworthy deals include acquiring:
- January 2022: Starschema for data engineering & MSP services on AWS cloud.
- September 2020: Australia management consulting firm DWS Limited for US$114 million.
- May 2020: The majority of Symantec’s enterprise consulting team from Broadcom.
- March 2019: Strong-Bridge Envision (SBE), a Seattle-based digital transformation consulting firm, for $45 million.
- December 2018: Selected IBM software businesses — including some classic Lotus Notes, Domino and Tivoli products — for US$1.8 billion.
- June 2018: SAP partner H&D International Group for US$34.7 million.
