COFIDES supports Netmind for its international consolidation

The technology company consecrated to provide training and assistance services to empower ICT professionals, Netmind will strengthen its presence in the US in collaboration with COFIDES.

Through a co-investment instrument attached to the FONPYME, COFIDES will support Netmind to purchase the company B2T Training in the US funding 36% of the total investment. The company was founded in 2000 and is the leading training supplier in business analysis and assistance services to agile transformation seating in Atlanta (Georgia). By purchasing B2T, Netmind consolidates its presence in the US and will have international commercial partners providing courses and certifications in countries such as South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

In June 2017, Netmind launched its American subsidiary in Miami, Netmind International for which it also counted on the FONPYME’s support. The company will maintain both projects active and simultaneous, each of them oriented to a different customer profile. Thus, Netmind International will develop the Spanish customers’ market operating in the US and Latin America and B2T Training will keep focused on the main American companies.

After signing the funding agreement between COFIDES and Netmind, the COFIDES Chairman, Salvador María stated that the “international growth of Spanish companies contributes to strengthen and increase their size, consolidating the activity and improving competitiveness.”.

The CEO of Netmind, Bernat Palau expressed that “the purchasing of B2T Training will help us to accelerate our establishment process in the US and to position ourselves like a company providing high added value training services.”.

GROWING MARKET

A market research carried out by Deloitte states that the corporate training market size is higher than 70 billion USD in the US.

Another report by the Association for Talent Development, ATD, on the digital training sector establishes that the average investment in training per worker is 1,229 USD yearly. The growth forecasts of this market for the next few years are around 9.5%, according to estimates by Technavio for the period 2016–2020.

The US is a mature market in which companies tend to set aside a growing amount for training services, this is why Netmind intends to enter this country in order to increase its customer portfolio.

Netmind is a technology SME founded in Barcelona in 1987 focused on helping IT teams to promote and lead digital transformation in their organisations through training and assistance services helping them to develop their talent, foster powerful cultural transformations and change their management models. Their clients include big companies such as BBVA, Repsol, Telefonica or Indra. They train every year more than 6,000 professionals and carry out more than 1,000 training courses. The company owns three sites in Spain located in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid and one in the US located in Miami. For the next few months, they have a plan to establish in several Latin American countries.

COFIDES is a combined private-public concern, which since 1988 has provided financial support to Spanish enterprises abroad. COFIDES manages the FIEX and FONPYME funds on behalf of the State Secretariat for Trade, within The Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness. The stockholders include the Bank of Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Santander Bank, Popular Bank, Sabadell Bank and CAF (Development Bank of Latin America).