In a strategic move, Woolsocks AG, a Swiss financial technology company, acquired a majority stake in Hiiper, an Amsterdam-based data insights firm. This acquisition marks a significant step for Woolsocks as it seeks to expand its capabilities in delivering data-driven insights and enhance its standing in the European market. Hiiper provides comprehensive consumer data, enabling businesses to understand market trends and consumer behavior more deeply. This acquisition aligns with Woolsocks’ goals of broadening its reach and offering innovative solutions to its users, thereby creating new opportunities for growth and expansion across Europe.
What Drives Hiiper’s Success?
Hiiper, established in 2016, excels in collecting and analyzing consumer purchase data from a diverse Dutch panel. This data includes information from receipts and bank transactions, allowing Hiiper to offer valuable insights into household budgets and B2C market trends. Hiiper’s approach to providing actionable insights has made it a key player for retailers and suppliers in various sectors. The company has shown substantial growth over the past two years, attributing its success to the robustness and relevance of its data offerings.
Why Is This Acquisition Significant?
For Woolsocks, incorporating Hiiper’s capabilities enhances its financial management services by integrating comprehensive consumer behavior insights. The collaboration between Hiiper and Scoupy, the Netherlands’ largest cashback app, further strengthens Woolsocks’ service offerings.
“Hiiper creates unique insights products for retailers and manufacturers from anonymised and aggregated purchase data, which it obtains from consumers through receipts and via PSD2 (‘open banking’),”
remarked Joep Smeets, Hiiper’s Managing Director.
The acquisition of Hiiper follows Woolsocks’ prior purchase of Scoupy, indicating a consistent strategy to leverage data partnerships. In 2022, Woolsocks founders became minority shareholders in Hiiper, signifying their interest in Hiiper’s approach to data insights. This strategic alignment aims to deliver expanded data propositions beyond the Netherlands, targeting markets in Belgium, France, and Germany.
“Woolsocks is already active in several European countries. You can therefore expect that we will soon offer our data propositions not only in the Netherlands but also in other countries, such as Belgium, France, and Germany,”
noted Smeets.
Woolsocks’ acquisition of Hiiper continues its trend of acquiring companies that enhance its platform with rich data insights. Historically, Woolsocks has focused on empowering users through financial control, and this acquisition allows it to offer more refined insights into consumer behavior. The partnership between Scoupy and Hiiper has already indicated the potential to revolutionize data-driven decision-making in retail.
The acquisition is poised to benefit both companies, allowing Woolsocks to enhance its offerings and Hiiper to broaden its reach.
“Understanding consumer behaviour in the broadest sense and being able to act on it forms the basis of our proposition to retailers and brands,”
emphasized Carlos Valenzuela, CEO of Woolsocks AG. By leveraging Hiiper’s data, Woolsocks can offer clients timely insights into consumer behavior, setting itself apart from traditional data propositions that rely on claimed behavior or limited retailer data.
Acquiring Hiiper allows Woolsocks to strengthen its position in the competitive financial technology landscape. The integration of Hiiper’s data-driven insights enables Woolsocks to provide its clients with evidence-based strategies for market engagement. This partnership aims to create a dynamic interplay between data, consumer behavior, and business decisions, offering a competitive advantage in the fast-paced retail industry.
