North West video analytics platform LivingLens has been acquired by leading customer experience (CX) tech giant Medallia for $26m.
The Liverpool-based company captures and analyses video content via speech, actions and sentiment, translating the content into business insights.
LivingLens’ co-founder and CEO Carl Wong confirmed the news on Thursday night in a LinkedIn post.
He said: “My team and I are absolutely delighted to be part of such a forward-thinking, exciting organisation.
“We remain committed to delivering value for consumer insight and customer experience teams, and this acquisition provides improved capabilities to accelerate that.
“My co-founder David (Woods) and I set out six years ago to make it easy and compelling to work with video at scale for insight-led organisations.
“Along the way, we’ve been lucky enough to work with some amazing people and amazing customers. We are hugely impressed by the calibre, commitment and culture of the people who make up Medallia, and the technology is awe-inspiring.
“Because of this, we are massively excited about joining forces with Medallia and driving the business forwards in 2020. Lots and lots of people have made this happen, and I am forever grateful to them for their blood, sweat, tears, trust and humour.
“Now for the next chapter in our story together – bring it on!”
He said the deal has been agreed and the required paperwork was ‘ going through’. The name and branding has yet to be agreed.
Leslie Stretch, president and CEO of Medallia, said in a press release they were attracted by LivingLens’ ability to turn insights into making better internal decisions or tailoring the customer experience.
He said: “With 3.5 billion global smartphone users and 54 per cent of all mobile brand experiences being video and image-based, it is vital to capture this exciting feedback signal.
“Today nearly 70 per cent of our solicited feedback is sent via mobile.”
LivingLens employs 26 people across four offices in Liverpool, London, New York and Toronto but plans to increase that significantly following the deal, especially in Liverpool.
The company has worked with companies like Proctor & Gamble; Deliveroo; O2 and Unilever.
Last year LivingLens was included in the inaugural LCR Tech Climbers 2019 list.