French strategy and management consulting firm Kea & Partners has raised €23 million from investors as part of its strategy to accelerate its growth and double its business within the coming five years.
Founded in 2001, Kea & Partners specialises in advising and supporting business leaders – with a focus on clients in the retail, consumer goods, industrial and business services sectors – with their most pressing strategic, cultural and technological challenges. The consulting firm works for clients of varying sizes, spanning small and medium-sized companies to large listed multinationals.
The consultancy currently employs 180 consultants across offices in Paris, Lyon and Casablanca (Morocco). Now backed by a new group of investors, led by Crédit Mutuel Equity and including LCL, Banque Palatine, Caisse d'Épargne and Banque Postale, Kea & Partners aims to become a €100 million consulting group by 2026 (‘DareWin’ strategy).
An integral part of the five-year journey will be to cement the firm’s independence, a feat which Arnaud Gangloff, Chairman and CEO of Kea & Partners, described as “a fundamental part of our partnership.” He added, “At a time when many consulting firms are being sold to large players and IT integrators, Kea & Partners prides itself on its vision to remain independent.”
Commenting on the transaction, Guillaume Nathan and Marc Picard of Bryan, Garnier & Co (an investment bank that advised on the deal) said, “Kea & Partners is a strategy consulting firm with a highly differentiating DNA. With this financing, the group has the opportunity to become a French champion in the management consulting industry.”
The deal comes around a year after Kea & Partners became the first strategic consultancy in France to transition its legal entity to a so-called ‘Social Purpose Corporation’ (under the 2019 French PACTE Law). Companies with this status commit to integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) goals into their business model and decision making.
In April this year, the firm saw its transition recognised with a B Corp certification. “Our raison d’être is to deliver transformations that also benefit people and planet, alongside profit,” said Gangloff.
Kea & Partners is part of The Transformation Alliance, an international consulting network that comprises more than 500 consultants in 12 countries. Other members firms are: Cordial, h&z Management Consulting, MBS Consulting and Q5.
Sourced from Consultancy.eu