UNRVLD acquires 2CV and The Value Engineers
Acquisition adds brand strategy, innovation and global consumer insight advisory to UNRVLD's experience and technology offer, bringing 70+ specialists into the group.
UNRVLD, the experience and technology company, has acquired The Value Engineers (TVE), a brand strategy and innovation consultancy, and 2CV, a global consumer insight and market research consultancy, from private equity investor Vespa Capital. Terms are not disclosed.
TVE has 40 years of brand strategy heritage and works with clients including Starbucks, Carlsberg and global gaming brands. 2CV has 37 years of quantitative and qualitative research experience at enterprise scale, with clients including HP, Coca-Cola and Transport for London and teams in London, California and Singapore. Together they bring around 70 strategists, researchers and data specialists into UNRVLD.
Adding the expertise of TVE and 2CV supports UNRVLD’s strategy of delivering intelligent experiences fuelled by AI that are reshaping expectations and value.
The acquisition brings research, strategy and delivery under one roof at a point when clients increasingly want them connected. Timelines that once ran to years now run to months, and the value has shifted toward knowing what to create and why. UNRVLD can now take a client from customer evidence, through brand and growth strategy, into the digital experience itself.
"We’ve built a strong reputation for creating and delivering the experience," said Dan Berry, CEO of UNRVLD. "TVE and 2CV give UNRVLD the evidence and judgement which complements that offer for large enterprises. This combination allows us to offer a holistic approach to delivering the intelligent experiences of tomorrow."
As sister companies, TVE and 2CV 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 behind them to deepen their practices and widen what they can offer to clients. Both CEOs are joining UNRVLD's executive team as part of the integrated UNRVLD offer.
“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,” said Fleur Horner, CEO of The Value Engineers. “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."
"Insight has spent too long being commissioned, delivered and then filed," said Chris Oatey, CEO of 2CV. "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."
The acquisition continues a buy-and-build programme backed by BGF and supported by the funding package UNRVLD secured with Barclays earlier this year.
"We are not finished," Berry added. "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."
