Keylane Acquires Danish Leader Schantz

UTRECHT, The Netherlands, April 3, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Faster and easier IT innovation at life and pension providers' fingertips

Keylane, supplier of SaaS solutions for the insurance and pension industry has acquired Schantz, a recognised leader of software solutions for financial institutions. The combination of resources and capabilities will ensure that both Keylane and Schantz clients will benefit from the delivery of future-proof solutions.

Continued market developments in the financial industry, like the need for more customer centricity, cost reduction and digitalisation, requires today a lot more flexibility of core IT-systems.

With Schantz, Keylane has acquired a modern and innovative software platform that can be used in the transformation of the international life and pension market. The combination will provide a solid base for future international growth and will accelerate R & D.

More strength in a consolidating market 

Ronald Kasteel, Executive Board Member at Keylane believes that "Combining our companies will accelerate the Keylane company strategy of becoming the leading European supplier of software to the insurance and pension industry. This new scale provides us with more strength in a rapidly consolidating market. Moreover, it gives us a stronger presence in the Nordics. Schantz will also extend our product portfolio with holistic financial planning services to the European financial industry."

Combine innovation with best of breed 

Jesper Essendrop, CEO at Schantz said: "We went about a detailed search to fulfil our internationalisation strategy and found a perfect match with Keylane. With a strong cultural fit and shared values this deal fast tracks our vision of extending the reach of our products on an international basis. The Netherlands and Denmark operate the world's most extensive life and pensions services. The acquisition enables us to offer advanced solutions to deliver comprehensive services across the full life and pension value chain based on the combined offerings from Keylane and Schantz."

The products Schantz Life, Schantz Valuation and Schantz Advice will be incorporated into the Keylane Software Suite.
The transaction is expected to be completed in the second half of April 2017.

About Keylane
Keylane is a leading European supplier of modern, customer-centric, SaaS software to the insurance and pension industry. Our in-depth knowledge and expertise allows us to help our clients transform the way they run their day to day technology and operations. By implementing our state of the art solutions we help companies to reduce cost, deliver new and innovative products to market fast and increase customer satisfaction. Keylane's products include modular non-life, life and pension solutions for support of all core processes. Headquartered in Utrecht in the Netherlands, Keylane employs over 600 people and delivers services to over 100 Insurance companies across offices in Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the UK.

About Schantz
Schantz is a recognised leader in providing innovative financial software solutions designed to streamline the business processes of life and pension providers and the banking industry. Since its establishment in 1994 Schantz achieved rapid growth and today more than 100 Danish financial institutions are using Schantz software. Schantz products include Schantz Life, a core standard solution for life and pensions that covers both individual and group life. Schantz Valuation enables insurance companies to make fast and reliable risk calculations. Finally, Schantz Advice - financial planning tools for life and pension providers and banks for a holistic and compliant financial overview that ensures improved customer experience. Schantz employs over 160 people from its office in Copenhagen, Denmark.

SOURCE Keylane