Market research and insights company GlobalWebIndex, which already counts Google, Spotify, WPP, IPG and Omnicom Group among its client base, is bolstering its attack on rivals such as YouGov by completing its first round of funding, raising $40m ($30m) from New York-based Stripes Group.
Against the backdrop of GDPR, the investment will accelerate the development of market research tools – oriented around the respondent’s experience, data collection is mobile-first, messenger format and tailored with personalised incentives.
Almost a decade since the company was founded in 2009, GlobalWebIndex has consistently grown revenue and headcount year-over-year, and now boasts a panel of more than 22 million consumers publishing harmonised data across 44 countries.
The company claims that its “unique” combination of data and technology, has enabled it to successfully challenged major players in the industry without any outside funding to date by embracing disruptive technologies to improve the scale and accuracy of consumer insight.
This investment will enable the firm to accelerate product development and international expansion, as it seeks to be the “global standard” in digital consumer insight and introduce new technology to transform the data collection process, while expanding the reach of its core survey across borders.
GlobalWebIndex founder and CEO Tom Smith said: “We’ve built our leadership position by delivering audience data to marketers that is accurate, massive in scale, fully opted-in and rapidly delivered. Partnering with Stripes Group will enable us to take our capabilities to more marketers around the world, with a trusted partner that believes fully in our mission, vision and cultural values.”
Within the past 18 months, the company, which is based in London, has opened new offices in New York City and Los Angeles along with technology hubs across Europe. Plans include the opening of more international offices across the Americas and Asia Pacific, ensuring GlobalWebIndex can provide the best support for its fast-growing client base which already spans more than 80 countries.
The backing will also enable the company to expand its global team of experts in data, engineering, account management and customer success to serve requirements across industries.
Smith added: “The demand we’re seeing on a global scale for our products and services is phenomenal. We couldn’t be more excited about embarking on the next phase of our growth with Stripes.”
Related stories
IPG grabs Acxiom marketing unit in $2.3bn mega deal
Callcredit snapped up by TransUnion in £1bn deal
Marketers claim data deluge is wrecking the day job
Only 2% of firms trust the customer data they hold
Filthy data hampers efforts to slash customer churn
Forget creative, contact data has the biggest impact
Data-driven activity? What’s not to like, say chiefs
