Sometimes company founders celebrate a deal over champagne. Or maybe over a fancy dinner. But the respective CEOs of Kenshoo and Signals Analytics had another idea. Instead, they celebrated their recent combination with a surfing outing at one of Israel’s famous Mediterranean beaches.

Kenshoo recently acquired the AI-driven marketing intelligence firm for an undisclosed sum. Why? Kenshoo positions the deal as a move to help brands catch up to the accelerating shift to eCommerce. This acceleration has, of course, been brought on by the global pandemic.

Helping Brands Move Faster

So what specific problem is this merger trying to solve? For starters, the brand product innovation cycle has collapsed. This means brands must make faster and better decisions. And clearer insights to guide those choices. This collapse has been accelerated by the rapid shift to eCommerce and direct-to-consumer. And not to mention the shift away from traditional retail channels.

Kenshoo’s press release offers this description. “By establishing a first-of-its-kind AI-powered platform that connects internal and external data sets to surface insights across the entire marketing value chain, Kenshoo will empower enterprise clients to make stronger predictions and unleash their growth potential.”

Here is what Kenshoo CEO and Co-Founder Yoav Izhar-Prato said about the opportunity the deal represents.

“Given the exponential growth we are experiencing in performance marketing, specifically around e-commerce, Kenshoo sees firsthand how brands make decisions to bring products to market online. The channel discussion is changing from media platforms to distribution types—Direct-to-Consumer or Retail. And we are relied upon to support those decisions. We looked for a powerful platform that best captured holistic consumer and market insights by connecting external data sets layered with cutting-edge, advanced analytics capabilities. And we found both in Signals Analytics.”

Buying the Team

Izhar-Prato heaped praise on Signals Analytics. In particular, he cited its skill in taking external data and applying AI/ML to create actionable insights for brand decision-makers.

“The team wowed us,” Izhar-Prato said.

For its part, Signals Analytics says the deal allows it to bring its solution to more brands. According to Co-founder and CEO Gil Sadeh, Signals Analytics’ mission is extracting the signal from the noise that clouds most large data sets.

“By connecting these signals in a robust, configurable data fabric using patented AI and natural language processing, we have helped some of the world’s most discernible consumer brands accelerate product innovation, improve launch metrics, support marketing teams and ultimately drive growth. Joining forces with Kenshoo means we can advance our collective mission of enabling smarter, faster go-to-market decisions in the current, highly dynamic digital commerce era.”

The two companies both founded in 2009, have raised similar amounts of money. Kenshoo has $50 million since its inception. While Signals Analytics, for its part, has pulled in $55 million.