Grafton Capital has acquired the business of ProQuo AI for an undisclosed sum. ProQuo AI is the only live brand tracking and testing platform driven by consumer instincts, enabling greater marketing efficiency.
ProQuo AI uses AI to turn consumers’ instinctive feelings about brands – the same instincts that drive 95% of purchasing decisions – into actionable data across 16 drivers of brand value. The business, which has a presence in London, New York and Johannesburg has been growing at an average of 38% per quarter since Jan 2021. ProQuo has over 130 customers including Keurig, Dr Pepper, Expedia, Amazon Prime and Unilever.
Grafton Capital’s founder, Ed Barroll Brown, led the transaction and commented “ProQuo AI’s technology effectively reads the minds of around 1 million consumers each month, revealing actionable data and insights which are a “must-have” for brand managers. We believe ProQuo AI has a market leading product which is well placed to benefit from the drive towards marketing efficiency for consumer brands over the coming months and years.”
ProQuo’s recently promoted CEO, Jim Brennan, has significant experience in brand management having previously spent 10 years at Unilever working on brands across multiple categories and geographies, including Food & Beverage, Online Gaming and Personal Care in MENA, North America and Latin America. Discussing the acquisition, Brennan said “Grafton Capital’s acquisition of ProQuo puts us in a stronger position than we’ve ever been in before. Grafton’s expertise in scaling growth stage, tech-enabled businesses like ours will focus our sales & marketing and streamline our operations so that we can deliver even greater value to our customers.”
Chief Product Officer Pete Harvey, a cofounder of ProQuo, who has led the development of the product and the R&D team from the ground up, stated “Grafton’s acquisition enables us to accelerate our product development to bring more delight to more customers in less time. The most valuable thing a VC can bring, beyond just their money, is to increase the odds of the target business succeeding. With Grafton on board, I am more confident than ever that ProQuo will continue to grow and succeed.”
This is the first transaction for Grafton Capital’s recently launched Special Situations strategy, targeting investments into proven businesses which have struggled to raise traditional funding in the current market environment.