Greensboro, North Carolina-based Apexanalytix has acquired ESG Enterprise, a Houston-based provider of supply-chain risk management data, software and services.
ESG Enterprise helps companies meet environmental, social and governance objectives through a software suite that includes a front-end data management platform and supply-chain analytics using artificial intelligence and publicly available data, according to Apexanalytix. Its services give client companies scores, profiles and benchmarks of suppliers.
Apex formed a partnership with ESG Enterprise about 18 months ago in which the latter’s software was integrated in Apex’s to provide ESG scoring for clients, according to Danny Thompson, senior vice president of market and product strategy for Apex. That enabled Apex to offer clients monitoring on topics such as greenhouse-gas emissions, carbon footprint and human rights, Thompson said.
“Understanding and effectively managing ESG is a critical part of smart supply chain management, which is why we are excited to add ESG Enterprise to our platform,” Apex CEO Steve Yurko said.
Terms of the deal were not announced.
“Joining apex will enable us to make even more of an impact by helping more companies measure and therefore manage the full spectrum of sustainability risks and opportunities throughout their customers’ large and complex operations and supply chains,” said ESG Enterprise CEO Alan Lee.
Investment firm KKR is the majority owner of Apexanalytix, with Carousel Capital, a former majority owner, retaining a minority interest.
The company says it serves more than 250 Fortune 500 and Forbes Global 2000 companies, protecting $9 trillion in spending. Among clients it lists on its website are Toyota, ConocoPhillips, Starbucks, AstraZenca and Cedars-Sinai hospital in Los Angeles.
Earlier this month, Apelanalytix announced it had invested in and partnered with Certificial, a North Carolina-based specialist in business-insurance monitoring technology.
Apex will offer Certificial’s certificate of insurance management services to its clients.
Bringing ESG Enterprise into Apexanalytix ensures continued access to the added scoring abilities, helps ESG Enterprise grow, and helps make sure the growth is in line with Apexanalytix’s clients needs, Thompson said.
“We formed that partnership and integrated their solution into our product about a year and a half ago, and it's been a great partnership," he said. "And so we've decided to make the purchase.
“And they have staff in some regions of the world and give us broader reach now, like in the Middle East, Eastern Europe, as well as an office in Houston.”
Apexanalytix has about 400 employees spread among its Greensboro base and field offices from London to Hong Kong to Bentonville, Arkansas. It also has employees working remotely in India, Thompson said.
When it was founded 1988 in Greensboro, Apexanalytix focused on accounts receivables recovery audits, helping large companies identify cases of overpaid invoices and to recover money. That remains a key part of the business.
A common service, for example, is finding invoicing errors that lead to paying a supplier more than once for the same transaction, or locating cases where a product was returned but the money not recovered. The amounts may be small, but in some of the world’s largest companies, the money adds up, Thompson said.
After customers suggested it, Apexanalytix added services managing global compliance rules around onboarding suppliers in about 2014.
“To do that, we have integration with over 1,000 external data sources to validate that data in real time as the supplier is onboarding, and then it's highly configurable to meet the client's individual business needs.”
The company is in hiring mode and has several positions advertised on its website.
“We do more commercial AP recovery audits than any business in the world, any other provider in the world. And our supplier onboarding software is the highest rated supplier onboarding software and risk management software.”
