Infor acquires Predictix

Infor, a leading provider of business applications, has announced the acquisition of Predictix, a provider of machine-learning solutions for retailers.

Predictix will become part of Infor CloudSuite Retail, a new suite of enterprise applications delivered in the cloud and designed for today’s retailing landscape. The acquisition comes six months after Infor announced an investment in Predictix.

“The synergies between Infor and Predictix were greater than we could have hoped, and we’ve come to appreciate a great cultural alignment where both teams have passionate people who work hard and want to make a difference in retail and beyond,” said Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor. “Buying out the other Predictix investors makes sense to bring the teams together and provide the scale and resources needed to accelerate the retail revolution.”

40% Growth

Atlanta-based Predictix experienced more than 40% growth in SaaS subscriptions for its cloud-native, predictive solutions in 2015, and is growing at 60% in 2016 following the investment by Infor. Predictix manages more than $60 billion in weekly forecasts, with customers including The Home Depot and Whole Foods Market as well as five of the top 15 global retailers. LogicBlox, the company’s technology platform underlying all Predictix applications, supports the development of next-generation predictive and prescriptive applications, and has attracted funding from DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

“The past six months of collaboration between Infor and Predictix has delivered innovation at a pace never seen before in retail software, which is crucial as the industry battles disruption,” said Molham Aref, CEO of Predictix. “Becoming part of Infor will further accelerate our retail revolution by providing scale and integrating two teams that sit at the intersection of cloud, analytics, machine learning, and self-service.” 

“From my point of view,” said Greg Girard, program director of omni-channel retail analytics at IDC Retail Insights, “long in the tooth time-series approaches to forecasting and analytics that inform pricing, assortment, promotion, and other demand shaping tactics have run their course. They fall far short of what’s needed today. They were designed and tuned for a different era-before elastic, scalable, subscription cloud environments, operationalized machine learning, inexpensive data storage, and the complexities, scale, and speed of omni-channel retail. Going forward leading retailers will take advantage of these advances for financial benefits, operational efficiencies, and customer loyalty.”