How Unicorn Choco uses Osterus to Acquire & Develop (M&A)

Berlin based unicorn Choco is using Osterus in three ways; to help them decide which companies to invest into, which companies to purchase and understand the talent pool in companies and competitors. Having recently become a unicorn (congratulations guys!) and with that much money in the bank it’s not unreasonable to start thinking about your next steps.

Obviously unicorns want to innovate more, grow quickly and increase their market share. One way of doing this is through acquisitions and investments. Choco may want to enter new markets, absorb a competitor, or diversify their product offering and acquiring other businesses is a tried and tested way of doing this quickly.

Why Choco is using Osterus to help them Decide Which Companies to Acquire

Osterus’ best-in-class analytics allow Choco to assess the value of the human capital within teams / companies in minutes. This value proposition can then be baked into the due diligence process when looking to acquire companies. Osterus’ technology is valuable not only for its assessment of the capacity of the team to achieve their goals, but also of the diversity of the company.

Any company Choco is looking to acquire needs to have a reasonable chance of succeeding — or why bother!

As I’ve said in other blogs — it’s the team and human capital that can really drive that growth engine forwards. Alternatively, it’s the team that can turn a unicorn idea into a pony overnight if they can’t actually achieve what they say they can. Osterus provides a simple way to sense check the capacity of the team and understand if they have the knowledge and skill set to do what they say they can.

The other important aspect to consider when acquiring firms is how the makeup of the company you’re looking to acquire fits into your brand. Brand identity is becoming more of a differentiator for consumers by the day. A diverse company such as Choco wants to ensure that any firm they acquire will support their brand values — including building and supporting diverse teams. Osterus shows which companies do this by analysing diversity factors within teams.

What is the Value in Looking into Talent Pools?

Have you ever looked at a competitor and thought — why are they doing better than me? Or looked at a new product on the market and thought — why are they doing so well?

A brand might think they’ve got a cooler looking card (does anyone remember the war of the premium metal cards in fintech?!), or that they’ve got a superior product. But… the sales and market share just aren’t reflecting that belief. So you need to ask why.

Now, a founder could just be believing they’re better than all the rest despite that not being objectively true. However, let’s say you know there’s a better product on the market, you know it’s got superior technology, customer service etc. but they’re just not doing as well as their competitors.

The answer is that there’s probably a piece missing from their toolkit, and it just might be the team.

Osterus can analyse the talent in teams quickly and easily across any industry. By looking at your teams and those of your competitors you can easily see where and why other firms might be outperforming you — or why you’re out performing them.

Why Choco uses Osterus to Analyse Talent Pools

In the case of Choco, this analysis becomes very important for two main reasons. Firstly, Choco always want to make sure they’ve got the market advantage and in order to do that they want to make sure that they’ve got the best team or learn where they can make improvements. Secondly, Choco only want to invest in or acquire the best of the best. That means they need to find the best and most capable teams and Osterus can help Choco find them.

Osterus can help companies keep their competitive and market advantage by analysing their talent pools. If a company in your sector is experiencing tremendous growth it’s good practice to investigate their talent and see how. If you know how — you can replicate it.

Osterus can also help find the best teams to invest in. Say you want to expand into Brazil and you find a great company that you might acquire to get you set up there quickly. However, this company’s tech or engineering talent and capacity is far below what you need and they’ve got a very inexperienced senior leadership team, you might think twice. You might look for a more experienced team with much higher technical capacity.

Building a unicorn isn’t easy. Expanding that unicorn and maintaining its growth is even harder — but Osterus can help!

Want to hear more or use Osterus — email me!