Yum! Buys Kvantum's Consumer Insights Arm

Restaurant network Yum! Brands is to buy the artificial intelligence-based consumer insights and marketing performance analytics business of US firm Kvantum. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2012 by CEO Shilpi Sharma and CTO Harpreet Singh, Plano, Texas-headquartered Kvantum develops and uses algorithms and artificial intelligence models to help brands understand consumer behavior. The business combines machine learning and econometric modeling into its Marketing Performance Analytics Platform, and its proprietary technology can measure the effects of marketing tactics in a designated geography across owned, paid and earned channels.

Yum! Brands says that by acquiring the Kvantum business, Yum! and its KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and The Habit Burger Grill brands will apply consumer insights and data analytics to drive calendar and marketing spend optimization. As part of the deal, Yum! plans to combine Kvantum's AI and machine learning approach to understanding human behavior with the skills of the anthropologists and sociologists at Collider Lab, a culture-based consumer insights and marketing strategy consultancy it acquired in 2015. The Kvantum business unit, as part of Yum! Brands, will continue to offer consultancy services to external clients outside of the restaurant industry.

Clay Johnson, Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Yum! Brands, comments: 'Kvantum is an innovator in data analytics and marketing optimization and has a proven track record of delivering significant value to several of our international markets by enabling data-driven marketing decisions to increase sales and better leverage media budgets. Kvantum's technology and the US-based leadership capability it brings will be a fantastic addition to the Yum! family, allowing us to apply a disciplined marketing sciences program at scale and fast-track our data and analytics strategy.'

Web sites: www.yum.com and www.kvantuminc.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.