Inc & Co, the Manchester-based group which has been on a major acquisition spree since launching in 2019, has already agreed to sell MyLife Digital to German firm DataGuard, just eight months after buying the business.
Launched in Munich in 2007, data privacy and information security company DataGuard last year opened offices in Berlin and London. It has more than 1,500 customers, ranging from small and medium-sized businesses to large enterprises.
It offers “privacy-as-a-service” and “information security-as-a-service” solutions. With this acquisition, DataGuard will add a new solution called DataGuard Consent to its privacy software suite and further expand its footprint and customer base in the UK.
MyLife Digital was founded in 2014 and acquired by Inc & Co last year alongside Wood for Trees and Insight Analysis, which will both stay within the group.
Co-founder J Cromack (pictured) will become a key member of DataGuard’s leadership team. He said: “We are delighted to join the DataGuard team who have a shared vision and passion to protect the people behind the data. Together we now have the end-to-end data privacy journey covered for any organisation looking to enhance their data protection and privacy processes to gain competitive advantage. This is an exciting new chapter for the team.”
DataGuard co-founder and co-CEO Thomas Regier added: “We are thrilled to welcome the MyLife Digital team into DataGuard. Together, we will expand their strong customer base and help many more organisations across the globe become privacy compliant and generate value through transparency and consent.”
The firm stated that the “MyLife Digital team has built a best-in-class and highly scalable consent and preference management product that will be an integral element of our software suite – allowing DataGuard to extend its capabilities into privacy user experience.
Inc & Co group chief executive Jack Mason commented: “We are delighted to have found a fantastic home for MyLife Digital, whose technology empowers consumers to think ‘privacy first’ when shopping and doing business online. DataGuard and MyLife Digital have synergies that will create a strong leader in the privacy and data protection arena, and I’m excited to follow their progress in the coming months.
“The sale will enable us to support our growing portfolio of data, retail and digital businesses including the newly formed Inc Retail, in addition to supporting the development and growth of new acquisitions currently on our radar.”
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