Narayan Ammachchi and Bianca WrightIn a surprising move, Globant has acquired its Argentinean rival Belatrix Software, gaining enormous clout in the IT services market of the Spanish-speaking world.
Gabriel Allasia, VP of M&A Operations at Globant, told Nearshore Americas that Belatrix has fielded outstanding solutions for an amazing roster of clients, which includes many Fortune 500 companies. “Their customer portfolio will reinforce our 50-squared approach, delivering strategic digital transformation to some of the largest organizations in the world,” he said.
With more than US$35 million in annual revenue, Belatrix Software runs delivery centers in Peru, Colombia, Spain, and the United States in addition to Argentina. “Belatrix’s expertise in the financial, payments and insurance sectors, as well as the health and retail spaces, is a great addition to our services. Those sectors are areas where Belatrix was very strong, given the experience they have,” Allasia said.
He added that Globant and Belatrix are able to cover Latin America in a much more efficient way, which is a primary rationale coming from a geographical expansion and coverage perspective.
Primarily a software engineering service provider, Belatrix has long been a vocal proponent of agile software development methodology. It has employed around 600 professionals and counts FIS, PWC, NEC, Adobe, and AOL among its customers.
Last year, it was bestowed with the prestigious American Business Awards in recognition of its fun culture, recruitment practices, training programs, and inclusive work environments.
“In Belatrix’s talented team joining Globant, we are uniting forces with an outstanding group of professionals that affirms our leading position in Latin America and in key technologies and industries,” stated Martín Umaran, Globant Chief of Staff and co-founder, in a press release.
In November last year, reports emerged that Belatrix was looking to expand operations in the US Silicon Valley with the goal of capitalizing on the rising demand for digital transformation services.
In an interview with Proactiveinvestors.com, Alex Robbio, President and Co-founder of the company, had even expressed a desire to go public, adding that new capital could fuel the next level of growth for the company.
“With Globant, we can enhance our presence in America and bring a new service offering to our clients in areas like artificial intelligence, machine learning and customer experience, to continue delighting them with stupendous digital solutions,” Robbio stated upon sealing the deal with Globant.
Considering Argentinean media reports, Robbio will continue to serve as part of Belatrix executive team even after closing of the deal. Allasia said: “Belatrix’s founders made this decision thinking about their clients and their people, as an opportunity to enhance their presence on a global scale. Globant will strengthen USA coverage for current Belatrix customers.”
He added that they have known the founders of Belatrix for more than 15 years, and are confident they will have a great cultural fit between both teams. “For these reasons, we believe it will be a smooth integration. And there’s a lot of cross-sell to be done in each of the categories that we are seeing,” he said.
The acquisition, he noted, is key to building the best global team that is prepared to face the most demanding challenges from large organizations. “With Belatrix’s talented team joining Globant, we are uniting forces with an outstanding group of professionals that will help us to move faster in the industries and geographies that we are already operating in, especially in Latin America,” he said. “Our pipeline and backlog remains strong, and we feel very confident about our ability to continue to deliver sustainable growth in the future.”
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