Omnisient, a Cape Town-based start-up that specialises in secure data-sharing for businesses, has appointed Tony Houldsworth as a member of its advisory board.
Houldsworth is a UK retail industry veteran and group president of Flooid, a global unified commerce platform for the retail and hospitality sectors.
In his new role, Houldsworth will advise and support Omnisient on its entry into the UK and European retail sector.
The news follows Omnisient in July last year raising $1.4 million (R19 million), as it looked to expand its global footprint.
This marked the second round of funding for the start-up, after landing pre-Series A funding from a trio of investors – Nedbank, Investec and Compass Venture Capital.
In a statement, Omnisient says Houldsworth has consistently been at the forefront of retail commerce technology and as group president of Flooid, leading the vision and strategy for one of the world’s most advanced unified commerce platforms.
Omnisient is a privacy-preserving data collaboration platform that allows businesses from retail, healthcare, finance and other major verticals to share and monetise their consumer insights without compromising security, losing control of IP or breaching consumer privacy.
“Data-driven decisions are critical to today’s engagements in all verticals, and collaboration is key,” says Houldsworth.
“The trouble is that when you overlay the massive importance of consumer privacy and the natural business need to protect their hard-won customer information, collaboration is too complex. Instead, everyone works off small snapshot views of the consumer. This leads to the poor decisions which are costly for the businesses and results in financial exclusion for large parts of society.
“The Omnisient platform overcomes the collaboration barriers, and I am excited to be involved with a business that delivers serious business benefit whilst helping to overcome some of the social challenges,” he says.
According to Omnisient, Houldsworth has spent over 30 years building and running technology businesses in the UK, Europe and South Africa, most recently focusing on the retail sector in the UK, US and South Africa, where he built relationships with some of the world’s largest and most respected retail, leisure and hospitability brands.
It notes he has significant experience in creating and delivering the technology solutions that underpin today’s consumer buying journeys across all channels, from the store to mobile to e-commerce and social.
“We asked Tony to join our advisory board because of his entrepreneurial spirit and impressive track record building and growing technology start-ups,” says Jon Jacobson, CEO and co-founder of Omnisient.
“We believe his in-depth knowledge of the retail sector, combined with his experience in developing powerful market positioning and appropriate commercial models for businesses operating in the US, UK and Europe will help us achieve a successful entry into these markets.”
“More than ever, this is a time for entrepreneurial businesses to lead the way. I’ve watched Omnisient from its earliest days as they’ve become a core solution in South Africa with over 60 major clients. I’m really looking forward to helping them in this next phase of growth into international markets such as the UK and North America,” concludes Houldsworth.
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