Acquisitions/transactions
Data and AI company Databricks has acquired German startup 8080 Labs.
Geofencing marketing company Reveal Mobile has acquired location intelligence company Mira.
Data analytics company Clearsense has acquired Compellon, an AI analytics company based in Lake Forest, Calif.
Data collection company Norstat has agreed to acquire 100% of the shares in CG Research, a marketing research company based in the Netherlands.
InMobi, a provider of mobile in-app advertising and monetization solutions, has agreed to acquire Appsumer, a performance insights platform.
Research and data analytics group YouGov has acquired technology business Rezonence.
The NPD Group, a market information provider, will be acquired by private equity firm Hellman & Friedman. NPD Executive Chairman Tod Johnson and CEO Karyn Schoenbart will retain a minority stake in the business and continue to serve on the NPD board of directors.
Data and research services company Schlesinger Group has acquired Telmy, an Australian-developed SaaS platform.
Canadian marketing research and analytics company Leger has acquired digital performance agency Ressac. Pablo Stevenson will remain president and partner of Ressac and Jean-François Lessard will continue to act as the chief operating officer and become a partner.
Dutch firm UmbrellaBrand Group has acquired CMNTY Corporation, a New York-based marketing research company.
IP intelligence company Digital Envoy has acquired the analytics business of Location Sciences, a location verification provider.
Swedish eye-tracking company Smart Eye has agreed to acquire iMotions, an analysis platform for human behavior research, for $46.6 million USD.
Marketing research and public opinion company Ipsos has acquired Karian and Box, a U.K.-based specialist in employee research and experience.
Customer service software company Zendesk has agreed to acquire experience management company Momentive, including its SurveyMonkey platform.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
WPP and Snap Inc. have launched an augmented reality partnership, The AR Lab, to deliver marketing and commerce solutions for brands.
Data analytics and marketing research company IRI and convenience store chain Casey’s are expanding their point-of-sale data-sharing partnership to include frequent-shopper loyalty program data from Casey’s Rewards’ 4 million+ members.
Research agency RED C has partnered with Cemantica, a customer journey management platform, to provide a suite of CX solutions.
Insight Consulting Group, a Chicago-based marketing research firm, has partnered with life sciences technology and consulting firm COEUS Holdings LLC.
ESOMAR and insight technology provider mTab have partnered to elevate the impact of the Insight250 awards, which feature “leaders, innovators, visionaries and pioneers focused on elevating and enhancing market research, consumer intelligence and data-driven marketing.”
Advertising tech company Amobee has partnered with shopper intelligence company Catalina. Through the partnership, advertisers will be able to leverage Amobee’s In-Flight Optimization with insights from Catalina’s point of sale data.
Consumer insights platform getWizer has partnered with text analysis platform Canvs AI.
Technology provider Cint has teamed up with data and insights company StatSocial to provide a connected data solution for targeting niche market research audiences.
Insight Consulting Group has been awarded a group purchasing agreement for market research services with Premier Inc., a health care group purchasing organization.
Insights technology provider quantilope has partnered with business data platform Statista Q to launch their joint brand tracker.
Association/organization news
The Insights Association’s IDEA Council has published The Evolution of Demographic Questions, a position paper on how to ask demographic questions on gender, sexual orientation and race and ethnicity. Learn more.
The Qualitative Research Consultants Association has launched a four-course series focused on data privacy in qualitative research. Learn more.
Awards/rankings
Consumer insights provider Toluna has received the Mahatma Award 2021 for its contributions supporting the market research industry during the COVID-19 pandemic in India.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Cultural intelligence consultancy sparks & honey has launched its diversity, equity and inclusion consulting practice.
Dash Network has launched to bring market intelligence and insights to the customer experience industry.
Data-driven media agency Essence has launched in France.
Data collection firm Partners & Schorr has rebranded as ResponsivMR, reflecting the evolution of the firm’s multimodal data collection research offerings.
Research company earnings/financial news
Market intelligence and search platform AlphaSense has raised $180 million in Series C financing led by Viking Global Investors and the Growth Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management, joined by Morgan Stanley, Citi, Bank of America, Barclays, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, Cowen Inc. and AllianceBernstein, as well as existing investors.
Phonic, a voice-centric research platform, has launched its voice and video survey platform and has raised $2.2 million in seed funding led by Tola Capital along with Supernode Global, Y Combinator, Zillionize, Remus Capital and others.
Experience management company Alida has closed $20 million in a Series D funding round led by Round13 Growth Fund. Sanjiv Samant, managing partner of Round13 Capital, will join Alida’s board of directors.
Data sharing company TripleBlind has received $24 million in an oversubscribed Series A funding round led by General Catalyst and Mayo Clinic.
Ipsos has released financial results for the third quarter of 2021, announcing revenue of €526.3 million, up 12.3% compared to the same period in 2020.
U.K.-based ethical data company CitizenMe announced an investment of $2 million in a round led by the North East Venture Fund, supported by the European Regional Development Fund with participation from 1818 Venture Capital.
Instoried, a pre-publication sentiment analysis tool, has raised $8 million in funding from Pritt Investment Partners and 9Unicorns with participation from Mumbai Angels, Venture Catalysts Angel Fund and SOSV.