Acquisitions/transactions
Medical communications and insights company Porterhouse Medical Group has been acquired by imc group, a London-based health care communications company.
Manchester-based digital collective Inc & Co has acquired sports analytics company Insight Analysis.
J.D. Power, a data analytics and consumer intelligence company, has agreed to acquire ALG Inc., a provider of automotive residual value projections.
Data and insights platform Dynata has acquired Sharpr, a knowledge management and publishing platform, and will integrate the latter's capabilities into its Dynata Insights Platform.
Private equity firm Arsenal Capital Partners has completed the acquisition of Cello Health, a health care-focused advisory firm, for a total enterprise value of £181.8 million.
Information and insights company TransUnion has acquired Chicago-based Signal, a tech company for customer intelligence.
Enterprise data management company Informatica has acquired GreenBay Technologies Inc., which uses AI and machine learning for data management.
Russell Reynolds Associates, a leadership advisory and executive search firm, has acquired the Cultural Analytics business of Workplace Analytics, a provider of insights relating to corporate culture.
Media consultancy MightHive will merge with Brightblue Consulting, a data analytics and measurement consultancy.
Data analytics company Qlik has acquired Knarr Analytics, a cloud-based analytics tool.
Alliances/strategic partnerships
The Market Research Society of India (MRSI) partnered with Habitat for Humanity to initiate the MRSI Freelance Interviewers’ Relief Fund to benefit interviewers in the market research industry during COVID-19. Over 200 individuals and corporations contributed to the fund, which benefited more than 3,600 freelance interviewers.
The Marketing Research Education Foundation (MREF) has partnered with the Kids In Need Foundation and Kits for a Cause to deliver backpacks filled with essential school supplies to students in the U.S. and Canada. The MREF will match every donation made through the drive, which can be accessed here.
Reston, Va.-based Comscore has partnered with consumer science company Consumer Orbit to launch Comscore Consumer Intelligence, a resource for local market ad sellers, ad agencies and advertisers.
The Market Research Society, the Research Society and the Insights Association have agreed to formalize their partnership in order to “bring increased information, access and influence to members of the respective organizations.” The associations will collaborate on activities including annual research projects, sharing legal knowledge and compliance guidance, and discounted member rates for products and services from each association. Additionally, the associations will seek to develop a specification protocol for organizations certifying to the ISO 20252:2019 standard for market, opinion and social research. Read more.
Marketing researcher OpinionRoute has partnered with health information services provider Medscape Market Research, to provide the latter access to OpinionRoute’s CleanID software.
Insights in Color (IIC), a community for multicultural market research and insights professionals, has teamed up with Quirk’s Media to offer rewards and perks to researchers within the IIC community, including speaking engagements and access to Quirk's industry events. Details will be announced in the coming months.
Marketing research firm The Logit Group has collaborated with Humber College to offer scholarships to Black and Indigenous students in the post-graduate research analyst program. Humber will award two students $2,500 each over the next three years, for a total of $15,000.
AI platform Absolutdata has joined the Nielsen Connect Partner Network, a network of solution providers for CPG retailers and manufacturers. The partnership enables integration of Nielsen data into Absolutdata’s NAVIK AI platform.
Marketing researcher Happy Thinking People has partnered with jovoto, an innovation crowdsourcing platform.
Marketing researcher MESH Experience and research and analytics firm Cambrian Analytics have partnered to offer agile dashboard solutions.
Major League Baseball's Toronto Blue Jays have partnered with Calgary, Alberta-based startup StellarAlgo for use of its customer data platform to connect with fans.
Experience management company Qualtrics is collaborating with the Character Lab, a nonprofit organization founded by Angela Duckworth, to launch the Return to Learn pulse. The pulse includes a well-being component that assesses how students, faculty and staff are handling the new normal and what actions can be taken to improve safety, health and success.
Digital consumer intelligence company Brandwatch and Kinetiq, a TV intelligence provider, have partnered to provide a cross-channel marketing intelligence solution.
Media measurement company Comscore has partnered with the World Surf League to provide digital audience measurement.
Association/organization news
According to the Insights Association, 87 business groups and companies banded together to urge congress to extend "the statutory reporting deadlines for the 2020 Census by four months" as part of the next COVID-19 relief package.
Awards/rankings
Women in Research has relaunched the MRX Diversity Champion Award in partnership with the Insights Association. The award honors individuals of all gender identities in marketing research who “actively embrace all aspects of diversity, making a positive difference in the lives and livelihoods of others.”
Marketing cloud Acoustic has been named a "leader" in The Forrester Wave: Mobile Engagement Automation Q3 2020.
New accounts/projects
Sample and panel provider respondi has for the sixth time achieved recertification for ISO 20252:2019, a standard for market, opinion and social research.
New companies/new divisions/relocations/expansions
Following its acquisition by Savanta in February 2020, Future Thinking U.K. will rebrand to bring all future activity under the Savanta brand name.
Law firm Ropes & Gray has launched its consulting service R&G Insights Lab, a cross-industry advisory service that combines the legal team at Ropes & Gray with analytics and behavioral science professionals.
Marketing researcher Field Sauce has launched its kids and youth research arm, Field Sauce Kidz.
Experience management company Medallia Inc. has launched its Singapore data center, which will host all Medallia Experience Cloud solutions.
Canadian marketing researcher Leger has launched its strategic and customer experience consulting arm Leger MetriCX.
Research company earnings/financial news
Intelligence platform Streetbees reported over 110% revenue growth in the first half of 2020.
Software corporation SAP intends to take Qualtrics public through an initial public offering in the United States while remaining the majority owner.
Media measurement company Nielsen has released second quarter financial results, reporting $1.5 billion in revenue, which decreased 8.1% on a reported basis and 5.9% on a constant currency basis.
Collaborative data platform Mode Analytics has closed a $33 million round of Series D funding led by H.I.G. Growth Partners with participation from Valor Equity Partners, Foundation Capital, REV Venture Partners and Switch Ventures.
Media measurement company Comscore announced second-quarter financial results for 2020, reporting revenue of $88.6 million compared to $96.9 million in the prior-year quarter.
Montreal-based Voxco Survey Software has closed a recent round of growth capital led by Pivoton Capital.
Customer insights company Tetra Insights has closed $1.5 million in a funding round round led by Active Capital.
Revenue intelligence platform Gong has raised $200 million in a Series D funding round.
Seattle-based Discuss.io announced that the company achieved 100% year-over-year growth during July 2020 compared to July 2019, with more than 50,000 hosted conversations from over 250,000 people during the first half of the year.
Machine-learning platform Dataiku has raised $100 million in a Series D funding round led by Stripes with Tiger Global Management, Battery Ventures, CapitalG, Dawn Capital, FirstMark Capital and ICONIQ.
Narrative, a software company focused on the acquisition and distribution of data, has raised $8.5 million in a Series A funding round led by G20 Ventures with participation from Glasswing Ventures, MathCapital, Revel Partners, Tuhaye Venture Partners and XSeed Capital. Additionally, Narrative has launched its Data Streams Marketplace for data acquisition.