Social intelligence platforms Brandwatch and Crimson Hexagon to merge
Brandwatch — the UK-HQ’d social intelligence company that raised $65 million from European VCs Nauta Capital, Highland Europe and Partech — is to merge with another leading player in the space, Crimson Hexagon. The merger, expected to close in Q4, will, according to the companies, create a business with around $100 million in recurring annual revenues. The merged entity will simply be called Brandwatch.
The idea is to create new, artificial intelligence-driven products to help brands understand consumer behaviour, especially via social media.
In a statement Giles Palmer, Founder and CEO of Brandwatch, said: “In this digitally connected world, our vision is to transform how organizations understand their consumers through products that bring structure and meaning to the public voices of billions of people. This merger allows us to accelerate towards that vision and move beyond social listening to innovate at the cross section of brand, market and consumer intelligence.”
Palmer will become CEO of the merged entity, backed by a leadership drawing from executives on both sides (names, roles not yet formally announced). The combined board also will be made up of investors from both sides.
Chris Bingham, Chief Technology Officer at Crimson Hexagon said: “I am very excited to know that our 11 year investment in AI and Machine Learning is so valued by Brandwatch, and that it will be at the very core of our new integrated platform.”
The products both companies offer will eventually be merged but for now the products they offer will continue to be supported and operate independently “for an extended period.”
Brandwatch counts Unilever, Walmart and Dell as clients. The company has made two acquisitions to date: PeerIndex (2013) and BuzzSumo (2017) as a standalone content marketing platform. It has offices in Brighton UK, New York, San Francisco, Berlin, Stuttgart, Paris, Singapore and soon Sydney.
Source: TechCrunch
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