Founded in 2010 by four friends and colleagues, Paul Gaudette, Ian Ash, Dominic Atkinson, and Michael Edwards, Dig Insights is a powerful tech-enabled services company that delivers consumer insights and market research consulting, tools, and solutions to leading brands across a range of sectors, including CPG, QSR, Alcohol, Cannabis, Tech, Telecom, Retail and Financial Services. Over the last four years, Dig Insights has been recognized as one of Canada’s fastest growing companies by both Canadian Business and The Globe and Mail.
Beringer Capital (“Beringer”), a leading North American private equity firm specializing in the information, marketing, and technology sectors, is proud to announce it has acquired a majority stake in Toronto-based, Dig Insights (“Dig”).
We’re thrilled to partner with Dig, a company that has disrupted the traditional market research space with its advanced technology, sophisticated analytical capabilities, and deep roster of high-quality talent. To date, Dig has done a remarkable job of differentiating its offering and positioning itself as a core mechanism in the innovation processes of major players across a variety of industries. Now, they are ready for their next phase of growth, backed by Beringer’s deep network and trusted expertise in sales, business development, and market expansion.
David Saunders
Beringer Capital
Built at the intersection of deep analytics, modern design and user simplicity, Dig helps clients to effectively understand and anticipate consumer behaviours in today’s ever- changing environment. The company’s success to date is supported by their proprietary state-of-the-art platform, Upsiide – a digital SaaS solution delivering AI-assisted innovation insights – that enables agile and tailored solutions at unmatched speed and scale. From piloting their first simulator in 2012 to launching Upsiide in 2020, Dig has shown impressive growth with an expanded team of ~200 people, operations in Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, and the UK, and successful research engagements in over 46 countries.
We founded Dig because we knew the market research industry could do better and over the last decade, our team, partners, and clients have helped us on our mission to build the world’s smartest insights company – but this is just the beginning. As we look forward, our new partnership with Beringer will push us to continue to be leaders, leveraging their value creation methodologies to introduce new and innovative ideas that will take Dig Insights to new heights.
Paul Gaudette
Dig Insights
Beringer Capital’s acquisition of Dig is reflective of its deep marketing and technology sector expertise, as well as its investment philosophy of partnering with robust founder- led companies that are focused on digitally transforming their respective sectors. Last year, the firm announced three digital-first acquisitions in the performance marketing, real estate, and financial sectors – Perform[cb], Inman News and Benzinga. Beringer is excited to bring Dig Insights into the family as the fourth acquisition of Fund IV, The Digital Transformation Fund, and is confident their winning value-creation strategy will unlock new levels of growth and opportunity for Dig.
There are a multitude of factors that attracted Beringer, and many others, to Dig. For us, it was a combination of their commitment to leveraging digital transformation to effectively democratize the market research space, as well as their outstanding leadership team. We look forward to building on their impressive brand and collaborating closely with the Dig team on growing its client base and further building out the company’s solutions across the entire innovation lifecycle.
Perry Miele
Beringer Capital
Canaccord Genuity served as exclusive financial advisor to Dig. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
ABOUT BERINGER CAPITAL:
Beringer Capital is a private equity firm specializing in the rapidly evolving information, media, marketing, commerce, data and technology sectors. The firm leverages its financial and intellectual capital to invest in middle-market companies that are strongly positioned to benefit from the accelerating trend toward digital transformation. Beringer’s collaborative approach, as well as its strong track record with add-on acquisitions, helps visionary leadership teams to deliver exceptional customer experience and achieve impressive results.
Beringer Capital has offices in Toronto and New York. For more information, visit: https://www.beringercapital.com/