Acquisitions/transactions 

Transit data platform Swiftly has acquired Hopthru to add ridership data and analysis to its platform. 

Circana has entered into definitive agreements to acquire NCSolutions, the joint venture between Nielsen and Catalina, and Nielsen’s Marketing Mix Modeling business. 

Quest Global Research Group has acquired media research firm Coleman Insights to allow both companies to broaden their offerings and improve their services for clients across the market research community. 

Clear Seas Research and myCLEARopinion Panel have merged and rebranded to myCLEARopinion Insights Hub.

Health experience and insights technology provider mPulse has acquired health care consumer experience technology company Zipari.

Alliances/strategic partnerships 

Through a strategic investment from Terminus Capital Partners, text analytics software and solutions firm Ascribe and insights platform Voxco will collaborate to provide customers with technologies for enhancing data creation, analysis and business intelligence.

Strategy and insight consultancies Brandtrust and Protobrand have created a strategic partnership to create a suite of solutions for clients to amplify human truth with AI.

Nielsen has formed a strategic partnership with Video Research to develop a deduplicated cross-media measurement solution for the Japanese market. 

Mystery shopping company Customerwise has partnered with customer feedback solution HappyOrNot

The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement will incorporate The Attention Council as an industry working group to support the scientific exploration and development of attention and related metrics across the media and advertising industry. 

Awards/rankings 

The Marketing Research and Insight Excellence Awards finalists have been announced. To view the full list visit www.quirksawards.com/finalists. The winners will be announced at the virtual celebration on November 19.

Research firm The DRG has been recertified to the newest ISO 27001:2022 standard.  

Insight by Design has been certified as an LGBT Business Enterprise through the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce Supplier Diversity Initiative. 

Women in Research has named Jamila Watson as the Gold winner and Ana Maria Santos as the Silver winner of the MRX Diversity Champion Award.  

ESOMAR named its annual award winners at Congress in Athens. To view the full list visit https://esomar.org/newsroom/esomar-announces-annual-award-winners-at-congress-in-athens.

Research agency Kadence International recently celebrated its 33rd anniversary and has launched the Kaddie Konnect program allowing selected delegates from various offices to visit another office globally.

Discuss has been named a leader in the G2 Fall 2024 Reports for User Research and Consumer Video Feedback. It ranked No. 1 in Best Results, Most Implementable and Best Usability and also received Momentum and Overall Leader badges in the Consumer Video Feedback and User Research categories.

New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions 

Online panel and research provider JTN has opened an office in North America. 

Health care research agency Holden Healthcare has opened an office in Tokyo to provide more localized support and services in the region. 

Social and market research agency Eumetra has opened an office in London. 

Explorer Research has expanded its behavior-based approaches including its immersive lab experience to Amsterdam.

HFS Research has opened an office in Boston.

Consumer and market insights agency 7th Sense UK has spun off as a separate business and changed its name to Lacuna Agency. The unchanged team will be led by Founders Fergus McVey as CEO and Claire Harding as managing director.

Research company earnings/financial news 

Data analysis company WhyHive has raised $600,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed round of funding led by Skalata Ventures.

The Lac1 fund, managed by Bpifrance on behalf of French and international investors, has become a major long-term shareholder in research company Ipsos. The Ipsos board of directors will propose a representative of Bpifrance Investissement as a director at its next general meeting of shareholders in 2025.

Insights platform Knit has raised $9 million in a funding round led by Revolution’s Rise of the Rest Seed Fund.

DIRT Research Technologies has raised $2 million in its pre-seed funding round.