Annapolis-based Datum acquired by Infogix

Annapolis-based Datum was acquired by Infogix, the companies announced last week.
With the deal, Datum’s team and platform will be merged with Naperville, Ill.–based Infogix, a 35-year-old data management company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Founded in 2009, Datum specializes in data governance. The company offers software and services that help companies ensure the integrity of the process of managing data.
“It really comes down to how you’re ascribing trust to the source of information that you’re using,” said Datum CEO Will Crump.
The company was bootstrapped over nearly a decade, and built up a roster of clients that included big brands such as General Mills, Johnson and Johnson, Mars and Serta. The company has continued to grow as data has become a more important part of operations as companies put a “greater emphasis on identifying the data that was meaningful and how it could be leveraged more effectively.”
“We had a real interesting growth inflection point in the last 12 months where we recognized there was a breadth of needs that our customers had,” said Crump.
Infogix CEO Early Stephens said Datum’s technology stood out, as well as its ability to market the services to companies and demonstrate its business case. He said the company’s client list was indicative of its capabilities.
“To have gotten where they got in terms of credibility in the marketplace…that is a testament in terms of what they brought to the table,” Stephens said.
Along with Datum’s platform, Infogix offers additional services that can be offered to customers such as data preparation and other management tools, Stephens said. The idea is to “take the best of both and bring it to the customer base,” Stephens said.
Datum has a team of 14 people based in Annapolis, along with more than 20 consultants in distributed locations around the country.
After living in the area for a previous stint, Crump said he and Datum’s cofounders returned to Annapolis to start the company after spending time in Cape Cod, Mass. He said the company tapped into the tech talent in the area nurtured by tech companies like USi and the cybersecurity community.
The company didn’t take outside investment, but continued to grow. Crump said the boostrapped approach requires entrepreneurs to hold themselves accountable to the vision for the business, and focusing first on what customers want. He saw the value of continuously demonstrating those values to employees.
“Staying really focused on what you do with the business and where you want it to be is a core part of any bootstrapping event,” he said.