GWI Raises Over $180M to Continue Building the Future of Audience Insights Technology

GWI, the leading audience insights company, announces it has raised over $180 million in Series B funding, valuing the company at over $850 million. Financing was led by Permira’s growth fund .

Founded in 2009 by CEO, Tom Smith, GWI has become the leading global market research and audience insights software platform. Receiving $40 million Series A funding from the New York-based growth fund Stripes in 2018, GWI has since tripled recurring revenue, reaching nearly 400 employees globally.

GWI delivers global insights at scale, enabling the world’s top brands, agencies, and media organisations to gain deep understandings of their audiences. Clients can analyse harmonised-data sets across geographies through an easy-to-use platform, gaining faster insights and time-to-market. This investment will further advance GWI’s software as a service (SaaS) platform, extending coverage and reach and capturing more data points from more consumers worldwide - particularly from underserved markets and segments - and innovating in UX, machine learning, and natural language. GWI will also launch further product offerings, bolstering existing data sets.

CEO and Founder, Tom Smith, comments, “Companies today need an instantaneous view of their audience everywhere in the world. The traditional approach of market research is not fit for purpose - too slow, incredibly expensive, and lacks the scale and detail needed. Our technology has solved this problem and the result has been incredible growth over the last three years. We can’t wait to work with Permira on our five-year goal to put audience insights in the workflow of every professional.”

GWI joins Carta, FullStory, G2, Klarna and Sysdig, among others, as a Permira portfolio company.

Alex Melamud, Principal at Permira, comments, “Understanding the digital consumer will continue to be increasingly important to brands, agencies, and media organisations who focus on engaging and acquiring customers through digital channels. Companies competing in today’s marketplace need instant audience insights and we believe GWI’s modern platform and globally, harmonised data set provides a unique solution to any data storyteller. We look forward to leveraging our global platform to support GWI’s continued growth and expansion across international markets.”

Ron Shah, Partner at Stripes, adds, “GWI’s exceptional products should be in the hands of every professional who wants to better understand their customers and make smarter, data-driven decisions, and this milestone is a powerful step forward for the company. Since our original investment in 2018, Tom and the GWI team have made great strides in delivering a transformative and superior product and we believe they’re just getting started. We’re thrilled to have Permira join us in this journey to make GWI’s ambitions a reality.”

GWI was supported by Jefferies. Permira was advised by Moelis & Company.

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NOTES TO EDITORS:

About GWI

GWI is the leading audience insights company. Its SaaS platform and custom data products are trusted by the world’s biggest brands, media organizations, and agencies on a daily basis to gain a deep understanding of their audiences at speed.

The company’s flagship survey represents 2.7 billion people globally. Through a combination of survey data and analytics, clients can gather in-depth insights into behaviours, attitudes, and interests from rich data sets including GWI Core, GWI Kids, GWI Sports, GWI USA, GWI Gaming, and GWI Work.

About Permira

Permira is a global investment firm that backs successful businesses with growth ambitions. Founded in 1985, the firm advises funds with assets under management of approximately US$65bn (€58bn) and makes long-term majority and minority investments. The Permira funds have made approximately 300 private equity investments in four key sectors: Technology, Consumer, Services and Healthcare. The Permira funds have an extensive track record in tech investing, having invested US$18.7 billion in 67 companies across enterprise SaaS, cybersecurity, digital commerce, fintech and online marketplaces. Permira employs over 350 people in 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia.

Permira’s growth strategy is to back disruptive and market leading companies as they scale to the next level. The Permira growth funds have previously backed and helped scale some of the largest and fastest-growing internet and technology businesses globally, including Klarna, Minted, FlixBus, Mirakl, Zwift, Nexthink, Full Truck Alliance, Relativity, G2, FullStory, Carta, mParticle, AllTrails and Sysdig. Permira Growth Opportunities closed its second fund in December 2021 at $4 billion.

About Stripes

Stripes is a leading growth equity firm that partners with founders who are building amazing products in the software and consumer markets. Stripes’ software platform invests in leading horizontal and vertical software companies servicing customers from SMB to Enterprise around the world. Stripes strives to serve its partners by delivering valuable resources to create transformative companies.

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