Appriss Acquires The Retail Equation To Strengthen Efforts In Fighting Fraud And Mitigating Risk

Analytics, data, and modeling expansion is backed by Insight Venture Partners.

Appriss Inc., a leading provider of data, risk assessment and analytic solutions for government, health information and consumer industries, recently announced it has acquired The Retail Equation, a provider of predictive analytics for retail businesses. Norwest Venture Partners, previous majority owner of The Retail Equation, will continue to support the company through its next phase of growth, by investing a significant portion of proceeds into the combined entity.

Irvine California-based The Retail Equation is best known for its suite of tools used for real-time return authorization, detection of suspicious employee and consumer activity, and identification of targeted incentives that keep consumers shopping after making a purchase or valid return. Appriss will add The Retail Equation’s analytics and predictive modeling to their suite of products, bringing highly targeted real-time solutions that reduce fraud and manage risk in the retail space to their customers.

“Combining data and technology from the two companies opens up an expansive set of innovative solutions for the retail industry,” said Mike Davis, CEO at Appriss. “We are excited to partner with The Retail Equation as we strengthen our strategy to combat organized crime and fraud in all industries.”

“Fraudulent and abusive returns cost U.S. retailers nearly $17B last year alone,” said Mark Hammond, The Retail Equation’s CEO. "Our solutions help retailers achieve an optimal return rate—one that encourages consumer purchasing and loyalty while preventing the extreme outlier behavior that leads to such extraordinary loss. Our new relationship with Appriss will allow us to leverage their market-leading products and strong relationships with law enforcement and government agencies to deliver innovative solutions to the retail market."

“We believe that Appriss and The Retail Equation have unique capabilities that, together, provide a powerful improvement to the shopping experience by identifying and curbing employee dishonesty, consumer fraud and organized crime within retail”, said Deven Parekh, managing director at Insight Venture Partners and chairman of the board for Appriss.

“We see great synergy with Appriss and view this collaboration as the next phase of The Retail Equation’s journey,” said Jon Kossow, general partner at Norwest and board member at The Retail Equation. “The combination of Appriss' information assets with The Retail Equation's predictive technology capabilities should lead to new insights and patterns of human behavior."

The Retail Equation retained Wells Fargo Securities as exclusive financial advisor and Goodwin Proctor LLP as legal counsel. Appriss retained Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP as legal counsel.

About Appriss
Appriss provides data-driven solutions to fulfill our mission of keeping communities safe and informed. Partnering with public safety, government, healthcare, and the commercial market, Appriss delivers solutions that prevent fraud, mitigate risk, fight crime, ensure compliance, increase public safety and save lives. Appriss’ solutions are always backed by excellent customer support with technical agents in the U.S. that are available to help 24x7x365.

For more information about Appriss, visit www.appriss.com.

About The Retail Equation
The Retail Equation optimizes retailers’ revenue and margin by shaping behavior in every consumer transaction. The company’s solutions use predictive analytics to prevent fraud and abusive returns and then turn each individual shopper’s purchase or return into a more profitable experience. This yields immediate financial payback, increasing store comps by as much as 2 percent, with significant return on investment. The Software-as-a-Service applications operate in more than 34,000 stores in North America, supporting a diverse retail base of specialty apparel, footwear, hard goods, department, big box, auto parts and more.

For more information about The Retail Equation, visit www.theretailequation.com.

About Insight Venture Partners
Insight Venture Partners is a leading global venture capital and private equity firm investing in high-growth technology and software companies that are driving transformative change in their industries. Founded in 1995, Insight has raised more than $13B and invested in more than 250 companies worldwide. Our mission is to find, fund and work successfully with visionary executives providing them with practical, hands-on growth expertise to foster long-term success. For more information on Insight and all of its investments, visit http://www.insightpartners.com.

About Norwest Venture Partners
Norwest Venture Partners is a global venture capital and growth equity investment firm that manages approximately $5B in capital. The firm targets early to late stage venture and growth equity investments across a wide range of sectors including: technology, information services, business services, financial services, consumer products/services and healthcare. Headquartered in Palo Alto, Calif., Norwest has subsidiaries in San Francisco, New York, Mumbai and Bengaluru, India and Herzelia, Israel. The firm has funded more than 550 companies since inception.