Acquisitions/transactions

Zonda, which provides data-driven housing market solutions to the homebuilding industry, has acquired Urban Analytics, a Vancouver-based multifamily and urban data and analytics company.

Growth consultancy Next 15 has acquired the entire issued share capital of data-led business Shopper Media Group and its subsidiaries Capture Marketing, Lobster Agency and Threefold Agency.

Marketing research and public opinion company Ipsos has acquired Intrasonics, a provider of audio recognition technology based in the U.K.

Targetable, a brand marketing platform for small businesses, has acquired ShopAdvisor, a provider of mobile proximity marketing and analytic solutions.

Data analytics and brand consulting group Kantar has agreed to acquire Numerator, a Chicago-based consumer and market intelligence company.

Public opinion and data company YouGov has acquired banking start-up Lean App.

Video game commerce company Xsolla has acquired Slemma, a data analytics and visualization reporting platform.

Alliances/strategic partnerships

Vesta, a provider of community-powered marketing, has partnered with consumer experience insights company HCD Research to support the launch of its Applied Consumer Neuroscience suite of tools.

Omniscreen advertising and analytics company Samba TV has formed a partnership with 605, a television measurement and analytics company. The deal provides Samba TV with exclusive addressable access to a subset of 605’s TV viewership dataset.

Data collection company Global Survey has formed a partnership with SampleChain to offer the latter’s /REVIEW and /SEARCH products to Global Survey clients to ensure the quality of open-end surveys.

Advertising technology company MediaMath has partnered with Tru Optik, a TransUnion company, to integrate the latter's data marketplace to enable audience targeting for connected TV campaigns.

Patient-focused recruiting company Rare Patient Voice and Clinakos, a provider of linked patient-level data and insights, have partnered to bring together Rare Patient Voice’s patient community and Clinakos’ cloud platform.

Programmatic research technology company Lucid has partnered with independent demand-side platform The Trade Desk to introduce the availability of Brand Lift, which helps The Trade Desk's clients measure the impact of digital campaigns on brand metrics using brand lift studies.

Association/organization news

The Association of Market and Social Research Organisations has been renamed as the Australian Data and Insights Association.

New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions

Following its acquisition of Cipher Systems, prediction market research firm Consensus Point has rebranded under the name Cipher and has launched a new website and brand identity.

Research automation platform PureSpectrum has expanded to the Asia-Pacific region and has appointed James Rogers as managing director for APAC.

Following its sale to JPMorgan Chase, the former Global Customer Engagement division of cxLoyalty has rebranded as loyalty and engagement company Tenerity Inc.

Research automation platform PureSpectrum has expanded to the Asia-Pacific region.

Crater Lake & Co. has launched with the goal of bringing together marketing research, data analytics, attribution and optimization. The collective’s founding partners include Brian Jacobs, Fiona Blades, Hilary Woods and David Beaton.

Experience management company Questback has rebranded as Tivian.

The Insights People, a provider of kids, parents and family market intelligence, has rebranded to The Insights Family.

Insight localization agency EMPOWER Translate has created the Unstructured Data unit, which is responsible for implementing management solutions for multi-market coding, verbatim translation and multi-market adverse event reporting. Additionally, EMPOWER announced 70% company growth in Q1.

SampleChain, a technology provider for sample validation and response integrity, has rebranded to Research Defender.

Cincinnati-based marketing research and insight firms Burke, Inc., Directions Research, EMI Research Solutions and MarketVision Research have partnered to launch the Minority Access Partnership Program, a multi-firm internship program designed to “extend opportunities for growth, development and mentorship in research and insights to a more diverse pool of talent.”

Behavioral insights consultancy Behaviorally has expanded into Asia, servicing clients in the region from its hubs in Singapore and Shanghai.

Dentsu has expanded its customer experience management services in the Americas with the launch of Merkle Canada.

CIRQ, an accredited International Standards Organization (ISO) audit and certification body that is a subsidiary of the Insights Association, announced that Full Circle Research has been recertified to the ISO 20252:2019 standard for market, opinion and social research, including insights and data analytics.

Newly merged technology companies Confirmit and FocusVision have announced Forsta as the new brand for the organization.

WPP has launched data company Choreograph, which brings together the specialist data units of GroupM and Wunderman Thompson into a single company.

Research company earnings/financial news

Crosschq, a software company for data-driven hiring, has closed $13 million in Series A funding led by Tiger Global Management with participation from GGV Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Slack Fund, SAP, Intersect Capital and Rocketship.VC.

Video data platform IRIS.TV has completed an $18 million Series B funding round led by Intel Capital with participation from WISE Ventures, Quest Venture Partners and Mirae Asset Venture Investment.

Retail analytics company Trax has secured $640 million in a Series E financing round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from OMERS and Sony Innovation Fund by IGV, with technology-focused funds managed by BlackRock Inc.

DoubleVerify, a software platform for digital media measurement, has launched an initial public offering of 13,333,335 shares of its common stock, with an offering price expected to be between $24 and $27 per share.

GumGum, a global contextual advertising technology company, announced a $75 million investment by Goldman Sachs Growth.

UserZoom, an experience insights management company, has raised $100 million in a funding round led by Owl Rock.

Research automation platform PureSpectrum has secured $17 million in Series B funding from Arthur Ventures.