ANZ Group buys Wellington tech firm Dot Loves Data

From left: Dot Loves Data owners Paul Bracewell, Matt West, Jason Wells and Mike Brough in their Wellington office. Photo / Mark Mitchell

ANZ Banking Group, the Melbourne-based parent of ANZ, has scooped up Wellington tech firm Dot Loves Data, founded in 2014 by former first-class cricketer and ad man Jason Wells.

The price was undisclosed but is below Overseas Investment Office and market disclosure thresholds.

Dot Loves Data takes a mountain of data, and seeks to distill it into simple bullet points and trend charts.

It’s featured in this newspaper for everything from its work revealing the areas of NZ with the worst rent-to-income ratio to a bid to apply “Moneyball” theory to T20 cricket (unfortunately partner CricHQ went moneybad) to mapping hot spots for drunken violence.

Many data analysis firms can pull similar tricks.

What’s Dot Loves Data’s point of difference? Wells says while it has data scientists - there are seven PhDs on its books - it also employs people from marketing, design and storytelling backgrounds, the better to turn complex data into a simple narrative.

Wells himself comes from a non-geek background. He played cricket for Wellington for 12 years before retiring in the 2001/02 season, then spent 15 years with ad agency Y&R.

“I’m the dumb one,” he jokes.

The firm’s name is a complicated in-joke involving cricket statistics - “Most people see dot balls as nothing, we see them as a fascinating bit of data”, Wells says - and Steve Carell’s immortal “I love lamp” line in Anchorman.

Dot Loves Data will be run as an independent business unit by its new owner, with Wells remaining as CEO and “business as usual” for all 32 staff.

ANZ says it’s likely to expand the operation. “This is a chance for us to grow,” Wells told the Herald.

Cut from the lineup?

A spokesman for the bank says Dot Loves Data will continue to work directly with its clients

Dot Loves Data’s current roster of clients includes BNZ and Kiwi Wealth (recently sold by KiwiBank to Fisher Funds).

Will ANZ rivals stay on Dot Loves Data’s client list? A spokesman for the bank says that’s “still being worked through”.

Boost to bank’s data operation

Dot Loves Data offers a suite of proprietary analytics tools, which provide real-time strategic insights, to help a broad range of customers – from corporates to local government, ANZ New Zealand general manager of data and marketing Astrud Burgess says.

The deal will see ANZ New Zealand, the country’s largest bank, work closely with the Dot team to develop further its suite of tools.

Burgess says using data to provide insights in this way – for the good of local businesses and the community – is an important part of why ANZ Group is making the investment.

“We see a huge opportunity to use data to make a positive difference. That’s the direction ANZ has been heading in recent years with the establishment of a 300- strong data team,” she says.

“Dot Loves Data has created tools and dashboards that are smart, simple and beautiful.

“The team have an impressive track record of taking complex data sets, creating practical and actionable insights, and supporting companies to become truly customer and data-led.”