A Leicester-based reviews platform has been taken over by US eCommerce tech firm AppHub.
Reviews.io was founded in 2012 by Callum McKeefery and Nicole Albano as a platform for collecting and publishing genuine reviews to build trust among consumers and merchants.
The solution, used by 8,000 customers including Vuori, Pura Vida and Boxraw, has evolved to leverage first-party data to help positively influence purchase behaviour. It also has loyalty, survey and user-generated content features.
The deal, AppHub’s eighth and largest acquisition to date, was fuelled by a $60 million growth investment from Silversmith Capital Partners. As part of the acquisition, McKeefery will join the AppHub board.
It doubles AppHub’s headcount to around 100 employees.
“The product suite offered by REVIEWS.io fully supports the AppHub mission to build software that enables eCommerce success,” said Arjun Batra, co-founder and co-CEO of AppHub.
“Our combined platform addresses a range of pain points for ecommerce businesses, including marketing, conversion, logistics, and now reviews, making it well positioned to serve both SMB and enterprise customers.”
McKeefery added: “eCommerce has become incredibly crowded, forcing brands to compete more aggressively than ever for customer attention.
“When we started Reviews.io 10 years ago, we wanted to create a product that would allow brands to build trust with their customers by enabling direct, useful feedback. AppHub is a great partner for us because of their broad ecommerce expertise and customer footprint, which will enable us to further accelerate growth.”