Medallia Owner Funds UX Firm UserZoom

Digital user experience insights specialist UserZoom has received an unspecified amount of strategic growth funding from investment firm Thoma Bravo, the owner of CX management firm Medallia. The funding values UserZoom at $800m.

The money, which follows a round of $100m a year ago will be used to accelerate innovation and growth for the company's proprietary insights system. The firm's founders and management will remain 'significant shareholders', as will current investor Sunstone Partners.

UserZoom was founded in 2007 and combines qual and quant research capabilities, UX consultancy, a participant recruitment engine and measurement and reporting tools to demonstrate business impact. The last half dozen years have seen a number of acquisitions including experience insights firms EnjoyHQ and Validately, and research tech firm YouEye.

Co-CEO and co-founder Alfonso de la Nuez comments: 'This is a huge milestone in UserZoom's journey to becoming the most valued brand in user experience insights. From our research consulting roots in the late 2000s, we have designed our products and services to power exceptional digital experiences for our customers and our central role in this industry has never been more vital'. He adds: 'This partnership gives us the resources to serve our customers with the rapid insights they need, without sacrificing quality, throughout the entire product development lifecycle'.

Thoma Bravo acquired Medallia in an all-cash transaction valuing the company at $6.4bn last summer. A. J. Rhode, a Senior Partner in the investment firm, says of the latest deal: 'Alfonso and his team are leading the charge in digital experience research and testing, and we believe this UX insights category has tremendous growth potential. We look forward to applying our software and operational expertise to support UserZoom's continued product innovation and market expansion'.

Web site: www.userzoom.com .