Zappi, the developer of an artificial intelligence-based market research software, announced Wednesday that it raised $170 million from Sumeru Equity Partners and other co-investors.
Founded in 2012, Zappi’s AI-powered consumer insights software allows brands to compare its studies against 1.2 billion historical data points to inspire, validate or optimize a company’s marketing campaign or product development efforts before going to market.
Zappi co-founder and CEO Steve Phillips said in a statement that the company has a vision to digitize consumer insights for every enterprise. He said only 3 percent of the market research industry is digitized, while the rest is based on service-based companies that return results in a matter of months. Zappi, meanwhile, claims to deliver results in just a few hours.
“We’re driving innovation in the century-old industry with a platform that acts as a single source of truth for the modern enterprise, where creators have the right insights at their fingertips to inform every decision,” Phillips said.
Zappi, which reached $50 million in sales last year, works with more than 350 companies, including PepsiCo, McDonald’s and Heineken. The company has worked with McDonald’s since 2018 to incorporate consumer insights earlier in its product development process.
“We wanted the consumer to help make all our innovation better, rather than just offer a report card,” Matt Cahill, head of consumer insights at McDonald’s, said in a statement “Now, four years later, Zappi has been a true partner in helping us to achieve that vision, codify it into our process and create a body of knowledge from which we are continually able to push ourselves to get better.”
With the new capital, Zappi plans to expand its data sets across new markets, verticals and categories. The company also plans to build upon its use of AI and natural language processing to evolve its platform.
Founded and headquartered in London, Zappi employs more than 300 people in 13 countries, including 85 employees in the U.S. Thirty-five people work at Zappi’s U.S. headquarters in Boston, and more than 50 employees live in the greater Massachusetts area. Boston-area employees work in marketing, support, operations and sales.
Zappi said it has expanded its employee headcount by 40 percent since the beginning of 2021 and plans to be intentional about adding new hires as it builds toward a long-term growth strategy in the next four to five years.
