Editor’s Note:
To provide context for the importance of the Press Release you will read here, we wanted to share background on Tecsa.
Tecsa was founded in 2019 by Tony Buffin, Koos Berkhout, Dave Battiston and Gerard Whelan with a vision to build superior in-house loyalty, analytics and media capabilities for clients. Having previously set-up and run successful loyalty businesses like Air Miles, Nectar and Flybuys, Tecsa’s founders saw that many leading brands have the potential to achieve a step-change in the value realised from their loyalty programs.
Tecsa partners with market leading brands to make loyalty programs more profitable, build more powerful media solutions, and create unique customer data assets. Tecsa’s analytics platform OneViu powers sustained revenue and margin growth for retailers. Proprietary AI/ML algorithms generate valuable insights on the fly, revealing category performance patterns, optimising range, pricing and promo strategies.
Following the successful launch of yuu Rewards in Hong Kong, Tecsa quickly built a global footprint with a team of experts spanning the Americas, Europe and AsiaPacific. Tecsa has delivered highly profitable loyalty, media and data solutions for clients across the world including Giant Eagle, Virgin, Scotiabank, Sobeys, Adidas, Uber, Wellcome, 7-Eleven, Al Rajhi Bank, Marks & Spencer, Norwegian Airlines, Strawberry Hotel Group and many others.
Press Release
Tecsa is thrilled to announce the expansion of its longstanding strategic partnership with leading pan-Asian retailer DFI Retail Group (“DFI”). This enhanced alliance marks a further significant milestone with DFI taking a strategic minority equity interest in Tecsa.
Since our inception in 2019, DFI has been integral to Tecsa's rapid growth. As our first major client, they entrusted us with supporting the design, build, and successful launch of their award-winning yuu Rewards coalition loyalty programme. Their continued collaboration has made them our flagship partner for OneViu, our data science platform that’s revolutionising customer insights for retailers and delivering enhanced monetisation built on real-world use cases. With DFI already reaping the benefits of OneViu across their Food and Health and Beauty businesses, we are now extending our partnership to transform category decisioning in their Convenience division.
The minority equity investment by DFI is a powerful endorsement of Tecsa’s capabilities, further solidifies our strategic partnership and aligns our shared ambition to revolutionise retail decision making, insights and media monetisation. With DFI becoming a strategic investor alongside Wesfarmers, Australia’s leading retailer, we are now well positioned to accelerate our international expansion and further invest in our AI and leading-edge data science.
Tony Buffin, Founder of Tecsa, remarked:
“Our journey with DFI has been instrumental in our rapid growth. Now having DFI alongside Wesfarmers as strategic investors is a huge validation of our team and our work to add value. I extend my thanks to Scott Price, DFI Retail Group CEO, and Rob Scott, Wesfarmers CEO, for sharing our vision. I also want to share my unreserved thanks to our hugely talented team for their passion, application and unwavering dedication. We have so much more to do in using data to help our partners make better decisions, drive acuity in customer communications and derive value from insights…retailing and data has never been so exciting!”
Shen Li, Group Strategy and yuu Rewards Director of DFI Retail Group, commented:
“Tecsa has already delivered exceptional value to DFI over the course of our five-year partnership to date. Our investment is a testament to their innovative platform and our confidence in its potential. We’ve been impressed by how quickly Tecsa has established a global presence with a broad base of blue-chip clients in retail, financial services and travel. We are excited to deepen our collaboration, especially by embedding insights derived from OneViu across our operations, and look forward to achieving even greater success together.”
About DFI Retail Group
DFI Retail Group (the ‘Group’) is a leading pan-Asian retailer. At 30th June 2024, the Group and its associates and joint ventures operated some 11,000 outlets with more than 5,000 stores operated by subsidiaries. The Group together with associates and joint ventures employed over 200,000 people with some 47,000 people employed by subsidiaries. The Group had total annual revenue in 2023 exceeding US$26 billion and reported revenue exceeding US$9 billion. The Group provides quality and value to Asian consumers by offering leading brands, a compelling retail experience and great service; all delivered through a strong store network supported by efficient supply chains. DFI Retail Group is a member of the Jardine Matheson Group.
About Wesfarmers
Founded in 1914, Wesfarmers is one of Australia's largest and most diversified companies, with a market capitalisation of over USD $50 billion. The company operates across several sectors, including retail, chemicals, fertilizers, mining & industrials, and safety products. In the retail sector, Wesfarmers owns and operates iconic brands such as Bunnings, Kmart, Target, Officeworks, and Priceline. Headquartered in Perth, Wesfarmers is committed to delivering long-term value to its shareholders and supporting the communities in which it operates.
About Tecsa
Founded in 2019, Tecsa is a technology company which specialises in assembling and utilising first-party consumer data for decision-making and monetisation. Tecsa helps its partners and clients create compelling reward programs which gather unparalleled consumer purchase insights. These insights are developed and delivered through Tecsa’s cost-effective technology platform, OneViu, to inform retail decision-making, and power insights & media revenues. Tesca democratises insights by combining deep retail expertise with cutting-edge data science and AI.
Learn more at www.thetecsagroup.com.
For more information
Dave Battiston
Co-founder & Managing Partner
dave.battiston@thetecsagroup.com
+971 55 888 8031
Anthony Morris
Chief Executive Officer
anthony.morris@thetecsagroup.com
+44 7738 881935
