Iris Capital, a venture firm backed by Orange and Publicis, has sold its stake in Dutch-based data management solutions service Human Inference to Neopost, a French-based trade buyer. Gimv has also sold its share.
Iris and Gimv acquired a 72% stake, worth around €25m ($33m), in Human Inference from Prime Ventures in 2007, which bought its stake for €3.5m in 2003.
Denis Thiery, executive chairman of Neopost, said: “We are delighted to welcome to Neopost the teams of Human Inference. The acquisition of Human Inference illustrates the pursuit of our strategy for expansion in activities that are not directly related to mail. The solutions provided by Human Inference will enrich our data quality offerings in addition to the postal address management solutions developed by our Satori Software subsidiary.”
Iris Capital team has invested more than €900m in more than 200 companies. In 2012 Iris Capital entered into a strategic partnership with Orange and Publicis to manage their joint venture capital initiative.