Breaking: Stitch acquired by California-based Talend in $60M deal

Center City-based Stitch, a spinoff of analytics firm RJMetrics founded in 2017, announced Wednesday it will be acquired by Redwood, Calif.-based Talend — makers of a cloud data integration solution — in a deal worth $60 million in cash.

As part of the transaction, expected to be completed later this year, CEO and cofounder Jake Stein will become SVP of a Stitch business unit within Talend and will report directly to its CEO, Mike Tuchen.

“Stitch is a great addition that gives us a compelling offering in the market for simple, self-service integration for cloud data warehouses,” Tuchen said in a press release. “In addition, we believe Stitch will work as an efficient high-volume way to acquire new cloud customers to whom we can market our advanced cloud solutions for data integration, transformation, cleaning, preparing and cataloging.”

“I’m excited about this deal on several dimensions,” Stein told Technical.ly on a call late Wednesday afternoon. “For investors, our team and also for Talend. They really get what makes us special and we felt that each side can learn from the other. We’ll be part of an independent business unit so that they can help us pour fuel for the fire.”

Stitch employs 33 at its Center City headquarters at 1500 Chestnut St. Stein said that 100 percent of staffers will receive job offers from Talend, and the plan is for them to accept.

“The Philadelphia office of Stitch, now the office of Talend, is gonna stay put and we’re going to be hiring a bunch more,” said Stein, who cofounded RJMetrics alongside Bob Moore in 2008.

Stitch’s service, which helps companies extract, transform and load their business data, will be aptly rebranded as Stitch Data Loader and will integrate with the overall ecosystem of Talend offerings, allowing current clients of the California company — including GE, HP Inc. and Domino’s — to access the tool in a fully integrated platform.

The dream of every startup is a ping pong table in the kitchen, unhealthy quantities of seltzer and to be acquired by a leader in the industry. We’re excited to finally check all the boxes and bring our talents (and ping pong skills) to @Talend! https://t.co/lfSQhQcDSa pic.twitter.com/R5O5ccqpRB

— Stitch Data (@stitch_data) November 7, 2018

When RJMetrics was acquired in 2016 by ecommerce company Magento (which was later bought by Adobe), Stitch spun out with support from RJ’s largest investors, namely August Capital and Trinity Ventures. At the time of the first acquisition, RJ had taken on $24 million, per Crunchbase stats. The $60 million cash deal to acquire Stitch, Stein said, was well received by investors.

“They are excited about the outcome,” Stein said.

One key difference between the RJ and Stitch acquisitions? Stein said Stitch’s single product offering made evaluating acquisition offers easier, whereas RJ Metrics had both a cloud-based business intelligence product and the offering that is now Stitch.

“With Stitch, we were laser-focused on one thing and we had the option to evaluate incoming offers and find the ultimate partner,” he said.

Credit for the exit, Stein said, should also go to the team that stayed with Magento and later with Adobe (which shut down its Philly office in August).

“I hope they will see it as a win for them too,” Stein said. “There’s so many people I’m grateful for, and that extends to the entire community. We grew and struggled and ultimately found success right here in Philly. That’s a huge debt of gratitude.”