DataMentors Gets Brook Venture Backing, Names Anders Ekman President

TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 5, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- DataMentors, LLC, a full-service data quality, data management and business intelligence provider, today announced that Brook Venture Partners has led an investment in the firm with co-investors Bay Capital of Providence, RI and Pride's Crossing Capital of Wakefield, MA.  This investment will further support DataMentors as it aims to reach more marketers seeking access to Big Data capabilities.

Bob Orf will continue as CEO of DataMentors and Anders Ekman, managing partner of data-based marketing company Attain Group, which is merging into the firm, has been named DataMentors president. 

DataMentors holds an outstanding reputation in data management, data quality and business intelligence, serving clients in banking, healthcare, retail, and other industries.  In addition to a steadily expanding roster of satisfied clients, DataMentors has been named to the highly competitive Gartner Magic Quadrant seven years in a row for data quality excellence.

Brook Venture is known for stimulating growth by driving sales and marketing development in its portfolio companies, with current and past portfolio companies such as IMN, Member Benefits and Relevate.

"Data Quality is a key discipline and necessary capability in the era of Big Data: keeping all structured and unstructured data linked to one customer view is an invaluable asset to any marketer," said Ned Williams, partner at Brook Venture.  "Our investment in DataMentors is driven by the industry-leading excellence they have demonstrated in maximizing the value of data for marketing, and the profitable results they deliver to their clients. This is an opportunity to support a great company that's ready to accelerate."

DataMentors' PinPoint product allows marketers to derive insight from their data and target the right customers with the right offers and campaigns. DataMentors also has proprietary access to a third party data file, allowing clients to target new prospects and understand more about their existing customers.  

"Middle market clients really need these services to be able to compete with the larger players, but it's become increasingly difficult for them to do so, given the cost, complexity and manpower needs that data-driven marketing requires," said Bob Orf, DataMentors CEO. "We've worked hard to be able to provide these services with world-class products available on a SaaS basis at an affordable price for marketers.  With Brook Venture's support, we will take it to the next stage, evolving these solutions and offering them to a wider group of businesses."

As part of the investment, Anders will lead sales and marketing and contribute his knowledge of data-driven marketing and analytics to the DataMentors offering. His company, Attain Group, will be absorbed as part of the transaction. Ekman's experience includes helping clients like GM and the US Army make the change to data-driven from advertising-driven campaigns.

"The need for data quality, multichannel data management and analytics has never been greater as businesses across all industries struggle to tap into Big Data capabilities," said Ekman. "DataMentors can empower all-size businesses to compete successfully in the Big Data arena and accurately leverage the enormous amounts of data now available to build more accurate, profitable customer relationships. I am excited to bring Attain Group's resources into DataMentors while stepping into the role of president so that we can keep growing DataMentors as an indispensable marketing solution for marketers."

About Brook Venture Partners
Brook Venture Partners provides expansion stage capital through Brook Venture Fund I, Brook Venture Fund II and Brook Partner Funds I, II, and III to Information Technology and Medical Technology companies located in the eastern United States. The firm focuses on acquisition investments of $5-$10 million and specializes in both financing and providing the strategic and planning support necessary to effectively manage growth. Brook is headquartered outside Boston in Wakefield, MA. For more information, call 781-295-4000 or visit http://www.brookventure.com/.

About DataMentors, LLC
DataMentors is a provider of database preparation and maintenance marketing solutions featuring DataFuse, ValiData, PinPoint and NetEffect. These services are used individually or as an integrated end-to-end turnkey database solution for a clean, highly granular and accurate 360-degree view of the customer through data validation, transformation, standardization and householding. DataMentors leverages proprietary data discovery, reporting and analysis, campaign management, data mining and modeling practices, identifying insightful customer sales and marketing directions.  DataMentors has been named to the Gartner Magic Quadrant for data quality for the last seven years. For more information, visit www.datamentors.com.

SOURCE DataMentors, LLC