Rival Group, the parent of Rival Technologies and Reach3 Insights, has struck a deal to merge with fellow Vancouver-based market research firm Angus Reid Group (ARG).
According to Rival Group, this transaction will form “the largest Canadian-owned independent market research company.” It claims the combination will deliver projected annual revenues exceeding $60 million CAD, operations across Canada and the United States, and a team with over 180 employees.
“We’re at this great inflection point where… the sum of the parts starts to have some nice scale to it.”
Andrew Reid,
Rival Group
The deal marks a family reunion of sorts, as Rival Group is co-led by co-CEOs Andrew and Jennifer Reid, the children of ARG’s namesake pollster Angus Reid. This trio previously helped build and lead Canadian customer research tech firm Alida (formerly Vision Critical).
Expected to close later this month, the transaction will see all three businesses continue to operate as independent, complementary subsidiaries of Rival Group. The financial terms were not disclosed.
In an interview with BetaKit, Andrew Reid said the merger brings Rival Technologies’ proprietary tech, ARG’s high-quality research panels, and Reach3’s expert consulting services under one roof. “We’ve been quietly building these things for the last seven years, and we’re at this great inflection point where… the sum of the parts starts to have some nice scale to it.”
Andrew Reid claimed that all three businesses have been independently performing well. By harmonizing their go-to-market strategies and leveraging each other’s strengths, he believes that the trio can grow faster and accomplish more.
“With ARG joining Rival Group, we’re building an organization that not only understands what Canadians think, but has the tools to ask, listen, and respond faster and better than anyone else in the market,” Angus Reid said in a statement. “While many in the industry are scaling back, we’re scaling up by delivering a new kind of research company: one that owns the tools, the data, and the expertise to keep clients ahead of the curve.”
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Angus Reid is taking a strategic leadership role on Rival Group’s board. Andrew Reid expects him to play an active part in the company’s trajectory going forward.
The Reid family has been working in the market research business for some time. Angus Reid founded the initial Angus Reid Group—which was known for its public opinion polling but derived most of its business from market research and advertising testing—in 1979. He scaled it before selling it to French competitor Ipsos in 2000 for approximately $100 million.
Andrew Reid, who had spent some time working with the initial Angus Reid Group, made his own foray into market research that same year by founding Alida, a Vancouver-founded, now Toronto-based developer of software designed to help large companies gather feedback from their customers. Jennifer Reid later joined the company, and Angus Reid became an Alida investor while growing the business as CEO. After a power struggle in the 2010s, the tech firm has undergone multiple leadership and other changes.
After exiting the initial Angus Reid Group and spending some building Alida, Angus Reid eventually launched another ARG—the entity that is now merging with Rival Group—that did similar work to its predecessor. ARG provides deep panel data and public opinion insights.
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In 2018, Andrew and Jennifer Reid launched Rival Group—which was called the Reid Campbell Group at the time—with support from Angus Reid as an investor. Rival Group integrates market research tech, audience access, and consulting capabilities through its soon-to-be three subsidiaries.
Today, Rival Group caters to more than 500 clients across tech, finance, consumer goods, media, health, and public affairs. Rival Group’s subsidiaries, Vancouver’s Rival Technologies and Chicago-based Reach3 Insights, offer an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered conversational market research software platform and market research consulting services, respectively.
Going forward, Andrew Reid (who is also founder and CEO of Rival Technologies) told BetaKit that Rival Group intends to integrate tech into more of ARG’s panels, layer on more AI, and explore various ways for the three businesses to work together.
Feature image courtesy Rival Technologies.