Innovation agency Hellon has bought a majority stake in the new design and technology agency, Graend Company. The acquisition strengthens the customer experience offered by the world's most award-winning service design agency to encompass the seamless implementation of digital solutions into clients’ businesses.
Serving Customers Globally
The subsidiary will be renamed Graend by Hellon, and after the transaction, it will continue as a separate subsidiary, serving customers globally.
Graend Company focuses on digital design and development; founded last winter by Antti Pelkonen, Maarit Kettunen and Jukka-Pekka Heikura, who have all had long international careers in technology. With the acquisition, the innovation agency Hellon and the new digital studio Graend by Hellon will be able to create unique added value to their customers' businesses around the world.
“As a strategic customer experience and innovation partner, we did not want to grow organically towards the direction of a technology implementer. We had already explored the possibilities to increase our offering when we noticed that Graend was newly founded by a world-class, experienced team of technology experts. The ambition, experience, and merits of Pelkonen, Kettunen, and Heikura as key people of Siili Solutions and Bitfactor, are convincing. They are a ready-made team with the ability to build great things and scale fast. This ambition, courage, and vision are needed to succeed in the world, and it is also expected from Hellon on behalf of our merited clients, ”says Jaakko Wäänänen, CEO of Hellon.
The motivation came from Hellon's customers, who have hoped that the company's passion for innovating around customer experience and digital services would also be extended to build and technical implementation, which was not part of the offering in the past. With the acquisition, the company has the ability to ensure that even the slightest but vital details for the customer experience discovered at the beginning of a project are translated to the final, tested, implemented, and published digital service.
“True customer value-oriented innovation is based on deep customer understanding. Even the slightest nuance can create a big differentiator in the final experience. Important nuances and their understanding are often in danger of disappearing as the drive for digital services shifts from customer-centric service design to technology-centric implementation. The result can be a well-functioning system that does not reach the intended customer experience or deliver the desired customer value. This challenge has often been encountered, and a solution has now been found, ”says Wäänänen.
The acquisition also provides Graend with a rapid expansion opportunity on the global stage. Last year, Hellon doubled its turnover in London, where global market-leading companies are looking for strategic partners who focus on specific areas of problem-solving. Together Hellon and Graend are able to deliver from vision and strategy to implementation, relying on their respective expertise and seamless collaboration to provide unparalleled value to clients around the world. “Because of Hellon´s great reputation in the field of service design, they have a lot of expectations. It is great to be part of such a community of professionals and ensure that the level of quality and ambition is maintained in technological implementation. Moreover, doing the same will not lead to a different outcome, so we have good expectations for future collaboration. In addition, we are building Graend by Hellon's own story as an independent studio owned by Hellon and the company's existing and new employees,” says Maarit Kettunen, Graend by Hellon's Chief People Officer.
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