ParkerGale Capital Establishes New AI-Fueled Market Intelligence Platform With Combination of Gap Intelligence and Deep.ad
ParkerGale Capital, a Chicago-based private equity firm that specializes in investing in and growing profitable software companies, is excited to announce it has completed its investment in the market intelligence space by acquiring Gap Intelligence and Deep.ad.
Gap Intelligence, a market intelligence provider to OEMs, and Deep.ad, an innovative, AI-powered market intelligence software company, represent the first of what is hoped to be additional acquisitions in the market intelligence space. ParkerGale plans to work with the combined entity to build out its product offerings and enhance them with the power of AI.
The combination of Gap Intelligence and Deep.ad will give customers access to one of the most robust sources of real-time market intelligence available today. Gap Intelligence’s market leading omni channel pricing, promotion, placement, and product data collection practices along with Deep.ad’s AI fueled library of real-time cross-channel digital paid and earned media data will create a truly unique product, tailor-made for marketing, product, sales, social, and customer insights teams who want to know not only how their products are performing, but why.
As an example, Gap Intelligence and Deep.ad will come together to provide the insights that help leading manufacturers execute multi-channel marketing campaigns covering the entire customer journey. Campaign activities typically include social media promotions, interactive experiences, and retail strategies for omnichannel promotions and advertisements - all designed to boost sales. To ensure a comprehensive evaluation of a campaign’s performance, top-of-funnel marketing activities can be tracked in real-time and evaluated in Deep.ad’s multichannel ad placements data, while bottom-of-funnel efforts can be analyzed with Gap Intelligence’s omnichannel 4P’s data and expert analysis, all while monitoring competitors’ actions during the campaign.
As part of the transaction, the combined company will be led by Greg Munves as CEO. Before joining Gap Intelligence, Mr. Munves spent more than 15 years at 1010data, ultimately becoming the company’s CEO and leading it through a successful sale to Advance/Newhouse in 2015. Kris Kubicki, the founder of Deep.ad, will also join the combined company as CTO, and will play a pivotal role in injecting Deep.ad’s AI and machine-learning capabilities into Gap Intelligence’s products. The company is looking to add additional offerings and verticals both organically and through acquisitions.
Mr. Munves expressed his enthusiasm for the acquisition, stating, "When our investors approached me to lead the combination of Gap Intelligence and Deep.ad, I immediately knew it was the right fit. I've spent most of my professional life creating data analytics and market intelligence products. At 1010data, I saw how timely access to better information can reshape how work gets done and industries get redefined. I see the same potential here at Gap Intelligence. Brands lack a cohesive persona-driven analytical operating system to make informed real-time decisions to help them understand competitive pressures and to ultimately win market share. I truly believe I'm joining a company who can give brands an unfair data advantage and help them win more consistently in their markets. And I’m excited about the potential I see in our AI strategy to deliver timely insights, as well as how quickly we plan on integrating what Kris and the Deep.ad team have built into the Gap Intelligence platform to help customers get a clear picture of their share of voice across digital media channels.”
Ryan Milligan, who led the investment for ParkerGale, shared his perspective on this collaboration, saying, "This combination of Deep.ad and Gap Intelligence is the start of something special. We’ve believed in the market potential of market insights data products for a long time. And now by applying Deep.ad’s cross-channel paid and earned digital media data and their AI and machine-learning capabilities to an already robust set of data inside Gap Intelligence’s products, we think we can unlock even more insights for our customers, helping them make more-informed decisions about how they win market share. This also won’t be the last acquisition we complete as part of this platform - and with Greg and Kris onboard, we can build our M&A strategy more confidently knowing we have a leadership team that can help us evaluate, integrate, and unlock the value within future acquisitions.”
Gap Intelligence was exclusively represented by Persient LLC in its sale.
About Gap Intelligence
Gap Intelligence, founded in 2003, is one of the world’s most respected business intelligence services companies. Gap’s data and market research products give manufacturers, resellers and industry players a competitive edge in IT, consumer electronics, and home appliances industries, and helps marketing, product, sales, and pricing teams make more informed decisions and stay competitive in a rapidly changing market environment. www.gapintelligence.com
About Deep.ad
Founded by Kristopher Kubicki in 2017, Deep.ad provides brand attribution and market intelligence software for brands, agencies, and market research organizations. Deep.ad’s solutions automate the discovery and extraction of brand, product, and advertising data and insight in paid and organic digital media. Using Machine Learning, Deep.ad can detect, classify, and measure appearances of placements – logos, trademarks, products, offers, and text – within visual media and digital content, bringing Ad Tech practices and scale to emerging media channels and giving agencies and brands the data they need to identify, analyze, and engage with visual content that features brand mentions and appearances. www.deep.ad
About ParkerGale
Capital ParkerGale Capital is a private equity firm based in Chicago that invests in small, profitable software companies where the firm's operating resources can have a meaningful impact on the outcome. www.parkergale.com