DevHub, the Seattle-based company that builds “data experiences” for multi-location brands, has acquired New York-based Brickwork, a retail technology SaaS company. The acquisition will be formally announced tomorrow (May 19).
DevHub Co-founder, President & CEO Mark Michael said the companies are not disclosing the deal terms. DevHub is acquiring Brickwork from its current owner b8ta.
The rationale for the deal was severalfold. Brickwork’s retail experience technology gives DevHub a solution that it can take directly to retailers. To this point, DevHub has worked almost exclusively through agency partners.
The acquisition also gives DevHub a long-desired presence in New York, which offers greater access to the brand community. Michael says DevHub will keep on some of Brickwork’s tech team, plus the company’s lead partnership manager, Nicole Ciaramella. The latter makes sense given how brand relationships are such an important element of the deal.
Delivering Data Experiences
Michael and Daniel Rust, who serves as DevHub’s Co-CEO and CTO, founded the company in 2013. DevHub produces what it calls local data-driven experiences at scale. This involves pulling in data to create unique local experiences across multiple locations. DevHub delivers these experiences through familiar formats. Think websites, microsites, landing pages, store locators, and so on.
Michael offered an example to illustrate what makes the company unique. One of DevHub’s clients does a lot of work involving influencers. Specifically, the client wants to understand which influencers are the most popular at any given time based on category. DevHub uses this data to generate dynamic pages so that an advertiser can see how much reach a given influencer has and with which audiences.
“If you’re doing it as a one-off, then you don’t need us. You can probably just figure it out,” Michael explains. “But if you need to build 5,000 profile pages related to influencers, then I think we’re the only game in town right now.”
An Undervalued Asset
So what exactly does Brickwork do?
Brickwork is a SaaS retail technology platform for brands and retailers. David Munczinski founded the company in 2013. Brickwork has worked with clients that include Nike, West Elm, Bose, Saks Fifth Avenue, and Bonobos. The company’s website sums up its offering this way.
“Brickwork is a Software-as-a-Service solution which powers a robust digital presence for physical stores and their unique services and assets through store pages, the first omnichannel-enabling store locator and local-activation solutions around store services, appointments, events, and promotions.”
Brickwork a Mismatch with b8ta
In January 2019, retail-as-a-service company b8ta acquired Brickwork. Munczinski hung on for about a year before leaving to find his next thing.
What b8ta focuses on is the in-store experienced. Brickwork, on the other hand, focuses on online experiences for brick-and-mortar stores. So we presume b8ta acquired Brickwork as a complement to its existing offering. But Brickwork never found a home there, and the chaos of the pandemic led to Brickwork falling further into neglect. Finally, b8ta considered winding the business down before DevHub came along and showed an interest in Brickwork’s technology.
Michael said he initially suggested a joint venture, but the b8ta team said they preferred to sell Brickwork. They told Michael they were not investing in the business and didn’t foresee holding onto it. Despite all this, Michael believed the product was a hidden gem.
“We have been in the software for the past five months,” Michael said. “They didn’t sell us sh*t.”
DevHub itself has been a bit of a sleeper in the local search space. Much of this has to do with the company’s white-label approach to date. Plus the fact that the team hasn’t really sought much publicity. Michael acknowledged this acquisition moves DevHub from the background into the foreground as it will now approach retailers directly about the new capabilities it just acquired.
“To me, it’s not a conflict,” Michael said. “There are enough brands in the world, you know?”
Michael wouldn’t say what DevHub’s current revenues are. He did share that the company has roughly 45 employees. And he boasts that the company is mad efficient.
“I believe we could become a billion-dollar company with fewer than 200 people,” he said. We won’t hold him to that. But we will keep a closer eye on DevHub.
