UNICEPTA acquires Berlin AI start-up Giance

Jochen Freese, CEO at UNICEPTA Group, comments: “Freely accessible information in media and the internet represents a massive, and strategically valuable data trove for companies. This constantly growing volume of data makes systematic evaluations based on actually relevant information nigh-on impossible, however. At the same time, companies need a reliable indicator providing them with relevant insights on events and incidents in challenging times, particularly with regard to ESG and compliance requirements. With the groundbreaking AI technology of Giance, we are adding an automated and highly accurate solution to our offering, not just for corporate communications and marketing, but also for other strategic departments, such as Finance, Supply Chain, and the C-Suite.”

The new technology enables companies to identify operational risks and incidents, for example within supply chains or in relation to extreme weather events, at an early stage, and respond accordingly. This also applies to events related to ESG criteria and compliance requirements, and in the context of M&A activities, where corporate communication is also increasingly being used to assess potential reputational risks.

Prof. Dr. Hans Uszkoreit adds: “Previously, gaining structured data from unstructured data – that is volumes of text – required human analysis. With our process, the AI learns this skill on the basis of just a few examples and improves as it goes along. The knowledge gained is formulated so that it can be used by both human decision makers and enterprise software.”

Giance Technologies was founded as the spin-off of a research project in 2018, which saw the DFKI team up with Ubermetrics Technologies, Siemens AG, and other partners to develop AI technologies for deployment in supply chain management and Corporate Intelligence. These capabilities were further refined by Giance Technologies and turned into market-ready corporate applications in partnership with Ubermetrics Technologies, which has also seen a part of UNICEPTA Group since early 2021.

Within UNICEPTA Group, Giance Technologies and Ubermetrics Technologies will form the technological center for research and development. Prof. Dr. Hans Uszkoreit will accompany the future development in the field of AI within the UNICEPTA Group as a member of the company's Advisory Board and will support the development teams in an advisory capacity.

Giance Technologies Managing Director Dr. Philipp Schlenkhoff will be in charge of the market entry for the new Corporate Intelligence solutions offered by UNICEPTA Group.

The clients of UNICEPTA Group include around two in three DAX-40 companies, as well as international corporations and organizations such as British Airways, FIFA, IOC, Roche and Stellantis. UNICEPTA Group has a staff of about 500 in Europe, the US, and Asia.

The transaction closed in mid-May.

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