Kantar, the world’s leading data-driven analytics and brand consulting company, today announces the acquisition of all software intellectual property (IP) and the development team from MindIT, the Bologna, Italy-based artificial intelligence (AI) company.
MindIT, a spin-out from Bologna University, is an award-winning machine learning algorithms and AI specialist whose solutions have formed part of Kantar’s Trade Optimisation Revenue Management offer since 2018. The team will join Kantar’s Trade Optimisation SaaS business to advance their vision for an integrated, end-to-end Revenue Growth Management (RGM) platform.
CPG/FMCG companies use RGM tools to make faster and smarter planning decisions to optimise their trade spend and maximise value realisation. For CPG/FMCG brands, trade spending typically accounts for 25% of annual revenue, making it their second biggest expense after cost of goods sold.
Kantar’s Trade Optimisation Revenue Management solution is one of the top three RGM platforms globally, managing billions of dollars of clients’ trade spend. MindIT offers excellent analytics capabilities which, along with the existing Trade Optimisation offer, bridges the gap between insights and execution, giving clients the capabilities they need to deliver optimal revenue management.
Acquiring MindIT’s award winning AI engine along with its outstanding UX positions Kantar as a market leader in offering an end-to-end RGM solution.
Commenting, Cedric Guyot, Executive Managing Director, Trade Optimisation, Kantar, said: “We know that RGM is a top priority for CPG/FMCG companies; with many currently going through the painful journey to digitalise their revenue management processes. Kantar’s vision for a world-leading end-to-end RGM platform is being co-designed with our top clients. The integration of MindIT’s capabilities is a crucial step in delivering against this vision and gives Kantar full control of the R&D roadmap for the Trade Optimisation portfolio of solutions.”
A number of Kantar clients already use MindIT in combination with Trade Optimisation, facilitating:
- Winning portfolio, in-store and investment strategies
- Harmonised datasets, which provide a single source of truth and drive common ways of working across functions
- Holistic insights across assortment, pricing and promotions to inform decision making
- Simulation, prediction and optimisation of strategic choices to ensure business objective are met.
Alessio Bonfietti, CEO, MindIT Solutions, added: “Since our company’s founding in 2017, we have been focused on applying AI to some of the consumer goods industry’s biggest challenges. In joining Kantar’s Trade Optimisation team, one of the world’s largest Revenue Management SaaS vendors, we get to apply our vision at scale and help consumer goods manufacturers wherever they are in their transformation journey.”
Commercial terms were not disclosed.