Kantar acquires Qmee, setting a new standard for trust and data quality

London, Friday 13 May 2022: Kantar, the world’s leading marketing data and analytics company, and capital D, the next-generation private equity fund manager, today announce they have reached an agreement for Kantar to acquire Qmee, the Reading, UK-based app survey platform and fraud prevention technology provider. Post-completion, Qmee will become a part of Kantar’s Profiles Division, which is responsible for primary research within Kantar. The transaction is expected to close in June 2022.

Announcing the deal, Chris Jansen, Kantar’s Chief Executive commented: “Today’s announcement builds on our recent acquisition of Blackwood Seven and the sale of our Kantar Public business. It is another illustration of the progress we are making in focusing our portfolio on providing highly differentiated and advanced analytics-based products and services to consumer-facing brands. Consumer insights are a key input in developing business, marketing and creative strategies; the acquisition of Qmee further strengthens our leadership position in delivering the most trusted and robust research to inform those strategies.”  

Qmee offers brands access to consumers’ opinions and attitudes via a fun and easy to use app which has a reputation for delivering the industry’s best response rates. Behind the consumer facing app, Qmee provides a panel of more than 750,000 active and loyal consumers across North America, the UK and Australia, and most recently France and Germany, alongside best-in-class advanced neural networks anti-fraud technology. The company’s rapid growth has continued over the past year, with survey completes increasing by 44% on 2020 and 119% on 2019.

Caroline Frankum, CEO of Kantar’s Profiles Division, commented: “We are already a global leader in panel quality and fraud detection and prevention - this move is a doubling down on that commitment to quality. With Qmee as part of our portfolio, we will build on our leading position within the $3.4 billion panel sourcing industry. We will now be able to offer the most compelling products for clients, where sample and data quality matter most.
 
With our own proprietary panels of more than seven million consumers, including our exclusive LifePoints asset, we already have an excellent reputation for providing trusted, high-quality research data, as well as a leading score for both panelist satisfaction and the prevention of fraudulent activity in surveys. The integration of Qmee further ensures clients can have the greatest possible confidence that their strategies are built on trusted, representative and meaningful data.”  
 
Jonathan Knight, Qmee Co-founder and CEO, added “Today’s announcement is a terrific endorsement of the vision Nick Sutton and I had when we founded Qmee ten years ago. We would like to thank the capital D team for supporting us over the past year of tremendous growth for Qmee. 

Kantar saw the value our unique technologies bring to solving our industry’s biggest challenges. Applying these technologies at a global scale is a wonderful challenge for me and the whole Qmee team. Both Nick and I are excited to join Caroline’s leadership team to combine our technology with Kantar’s proven IP and processes to set a new standard for trust and data quality in the research industry.” 
 
Jean-Marc Jabre, Co-founder of capital D said: “We identified how Qmee’s technology is disrupting the research and consumer insight space and as majority owner of Qmee we have worked closely with Jonathan and Nick to create a strategic first-class asset in this industry and to achieve their global ambitions. The investment in Qmee aligns well with our strategy of backing fast growing, highly scalable and disruptive businesses and partnering with founders to help them mature their business. 
 
It has been a pleasure to work together with Jonathan, Nick and the team at Qmee and we wish them well with Kantar.” 

Financial terms of the transaction have not been released.  

Kantar was advised by Travers Smith whilst capital D and Qmee were advised by Lazard and Latham & Watkins.