Unilever Foundry Partners with Enterprise Software and Predictive Analytics company RecommenderX to Automate Its Data Collation and Analysis
- The start-up collaboration arm of Unilever added Dublin to its global start-up network in 2018
- Dublin based Recommender X specialise in predictive decision support systems and count Mastercard amongst their global client base
The Unilever Foundry has announced the completion of its first successful engagement in Ireland following its expansion into the Dublin ecosystem in 2018.
The Unilever Foundry’ is a global platform for partnering with the world’s best innovators to provide a platform for collaboration, problem solving and scaling. The Unilever Foundry worked in conjunction with the local market and in partnership with the Unilever team in Dogpatch labs at the start of 2019 to
- Create a succinct brief relating to the labour intensive and complex method of curating and analysing multiple data sources to create insight.
- Engage with the start up ecosystem both locally and internationally in order to first short list and then select the right partner to create a solution with
With the combined reach of the Unilever Foundry Global network, coupled with the extensive network at the disposal of the team in Dogpatch Labs, the Pilot attracted 26 applications from around the world, with India, Pakistan, Singapore and Dubai all pitching to be involved.
It was Recommender X however, who impressed the Unilever team the most, not only with their grasp of the problem, but with their compelling and user-friendly vision for the solution. What followed was a 9-month sprint where the Recommender X team partnered with the Insights function in Unilever Ireland to turn a vision for a solution, into a workable reality
Kevin McCarthy CEO at RecommenderX said “it was a hugely interesting opportunity to work closely with the insights team in Unilever Ireland, in order to co create and turn our vision into a viable proof of concept. Whilst we have experience working with large multinationals in the past, the complexity of both the data inputs, coupled with the simplicity of the outputs that we needed to build, made this a unique but engaging challenge”
This partnership is being announced at a time when the consumer-packaged goods (CPG) industry is being increasingly disrupted by new technologies, innovative business models and social consciousness. The traditionally linear path to purchase has grown increasingly fragmented with consumers benefiting from ‘always- on’ instant connectivity that is offering them both greater choice than ever before as well as a heightened awareness on what their brands stand for. As market leader in CPG globally, Unilever has a responsibility to co-create and accelerate their access to insights that respond to the exponential change in consumer expectation.
As Dublin’s tech community has grown, so has its entrepreneurial spirit. The original partnership between Unilever Foundry and Dogpatch Labs was set out to provide a global platform to amplify and scale more sustainable business opportunities and this engagement with Recommender X provides significant validation for that ambition.
