SI Partners advises Adaptive Lab on sale to Capgemini’s Idean

Adaptive Lab is joining Idean, a Capgemini company, and becoming the UK studio for the global design agency. Long-term advisor to Adaptive Lab, SI Partners, advised the shareholders on the deal.

“A really exciting deal that allows the shareholders of Adaptive Lab to continue their amazing journey alongside one of the world’s leading design studios Idean, with the might of Capgemini behind them. The focus of this deal is ambitious growth in a very dynamic market – Adaptive Lab have found the right partner to maximise the opportunity,” comments Joe Hine, Partner at SI Partners who led the deal negotiations.

Adaptive Lab is a digital design studio that helps businesses adjust to new technology and the accompanying shifts in customer behaviour. This acquisition will help to further meet growing customer demand for the Group’s end to end digital services.

SI Partners has been a long-term trusted advisor to Adaptive Lab. Their insightful counsel and clear guidance has helped us build our business and ultimately negotiate a contemporary partnership that achieves our ambitions and creates an exciting future for Adaptive Lab.”

James Haycock, Managing Director, Adaptive Lab

Established in 2009, Adaptive Lab comprises a team of 50 designers, developers, and strategists. With a focus on design and a particular strength in Financial Services and Telco, Adaptive Lab’s top clients include global leaders such as Santander, Standard Life, Vodafone, and Three.

“Adaptive Lab’s digital first, experience design led approach enables organizations to redefine their businesses and embrace disruptive technologies quickly for competitive advantage,” comments Cyril Garcia, Head of Digital Services and member of the Group Executive Committee at Capgemini. “Adaptive Lab’s track record of working with marquee clients on high stakes projects is impressive and totally complementary to our digital services portfolio. We are delighted to welcome them to the Group and are sure they will play an instrumental role in growing our global network of studios under the Capgemini Group’s Idean brand, dedicated to creative design studios.”

Adaptive Lab differentiates itself by taking an iterative approach to identifying business opportunities for its clients, designing a vision based on real customer data, testing and evolving offerings, and then scaling the model quickly for competitive edge. Recent projects include helping mobile provider Three launch “Smarty”, a SIM only brand that refunds customers for unused data at the end of every month; with Vodafone, Adaptive Lab developed an app for “V-Auto by Vodafone”, an innovative consumer product that helps car owners become safer, better drivers, track their vehicle location and alert authorities in the event of a serious accident.

“Since we founded Adaptive Lab over 100 $bn tech startups have been created in industries ranging from financial services to retail. To compete in these fast-moving markets, companies need to completely rethink how they approach growth. Our vision is to bring design, business and technology skills together in small, collaborative teams to help our clients do just that. We call this approach ‘Beta Businesses’. It allows organizations to quickly pilot, scale and learn so that they can seize business opportunities before anyone else,” comments James Haycock, Managing Director and Founder, Adaptive Lab. “Idean shares our philosophy and our ambition to take this modern approach global. They also recognize our special culture and how important this is in attracting the best talent and delivering impactful work.”

Capgemini announced the acquisition of Idean, the experience design firm, back in February 2017. The Adaptive Lab team will join Idean’s global network of 11 creative design studios and over 230 digital strategists, designers, and developers; merging with Idean’s London studio.