2CV and TVE Sold to Experience Specialist UNRVLD

Tech company UNRVLD has announced the acquisition of 2CV and The Value Engineers (TVE), adding more than 70 staff, and expertise in brand strategy, innovation and global consumer insight advisory. All three businesses are headquartered in London. Terms were not disclosed.

UNRVLD brings digital strategy, design and engineering together to build 'experiences and the foundations that underpin them' for its enterprise clients. The acquisition continues a 'buy and build' strategy backed by BGF and supported by a funding package the company secured with Barclays earlier this year.

TVE, a brand strategy and innovation consultancy, and consumer researcher 2CV, were previously owned by private equity investor Vespa Capital, and formed part of its marketing strategy, insights and comms specialist Digital Technology Advisory Group (DTAG), acquired from Cello early in 2022. UNRVLD says the buys support its strategy of delivering intelligent experiences fuelled by AI, 'bringing research, strategy and delivery under one roof at a point when clients increasingly want them connected.' The parent firm says it can now 'take a client from customer evidence, through brand and growth strategy, into the digital experience itself.'

Both the acquired companies were founded in the 1980s, and the two have collaborated for several years, sharing clients, a data science capability and a joint approach to new business. They will continue under their own leadership, with investment to help expand their offerings, and both CEOs are joining UNRVLD's executive team. 2CV has teams in London, California and Singapore.

Dan Berry, CEO of UNRVLD, says the acquisitions give the company 'the evidence and judgement which complements [its experience] offer for large enterprises', and notes that the firm is 'not finished' buying. 'This is a deliberate acquisition programme and we have the backing to keep going. We are actively evaluating businesses that add strategic capability to further support the breadth of what will be needed to enable intelligent experiences.'

'Insight has spent too long being commissioned, delivered and then filed,' says recently promoted 2CV Chief Exec Chris Oatey. 'Being part of a group that designs and builds the experience means our evidence will more often shape something real and we will find be part of what happens next. That is better for our clients, and it makes the work considerably more rewarding for our researchers.'

Fleur Horner, CEO of The Value Engineers, comments: 'Our team will remain focused on what we do best, but the difference is that our advice no longer has to stop at the recommendation. We get to see our ideas become reality, and we keep the independence from media networks that makes clients trust us in the first place.'

Web sites: www.unrvld.com , www.dtadvisorygroup.com , www.thevalueengineers.com and www.2cv.com .