Today’s big news is that the UK-founded e-commerce conversion company Ve has acquired digital advertising company GDM Digital in a $12 million deal (Update – May 2023: The startups seems to be no longer in business under these website, and we therefore deactivated the original links). The acquisition marks a major development in Ve’s expansion into digital advertising and the deal increases Ve’s client-base to more than 6,000 online businesses.
As you might already know, Ve is a UK-founded, London-based, technology company, whose platform allows companies to acquire, engage and convert customers at every stage of the e-commerce journey. Its suite of apps help online businesses reduce bounce rates, increase customer engagement, minimise website abandonment and convert browsers to buyers. At the same time, GDM Digital specialises in performance trading and real-time biddable media and is currently working with companies including Microsoft, Coral, Lufthansa, IBM, Virgin Active and Audi.
Following this acquisition, all 42 staff at GDM will be retained bringing Ve’s total staff numbers to over 500, working in 18 offices worldwide. Additionally, GDM will now offer clients the VePlatform to acquire, engage and convert customers at every stage of the ecommerce journey, in addition to a complete digital advertising service. The acquisition of GDM follows the launch of Ve’s Japanese office, the sixth in Asia-Pac following Shanghai, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong and Melbourne.
David J. Brown, CEO and co-Founder of Ve, said: “What sets GDM apart from other ad tech companies is the incredible skill set and expertise of its staff. With all 42 of GDM’s talented staff on board, Ve will be able to expand its digital marketing offering rapidly. Digital advertising is becoming a big part of our business because of the natural affinity it shares with our other online conversion apps. Ve is growing very quickly in emerging markets, particularly in Asia, where there is also a huge demand for ad tech services.”
Ed Stevens, CEO and co-founder of GDM Digital, who will join Ve as Commercial Director, said: “We’re very excited to join Ve. GDM Digital has established itself as an innovative and fast growth digital advertising company and Ve is a multi award-winning UK tech success story, therefore agreeing to become part of its journey made perfect sense. Together we’ll be able to offer online businesses a more comprehensive digital advertising service and be a leading player in the global e-commerce and ad tech industries.”
By the way: You can find out about other interesting startups from the UK in this list.
[…] we reported, Ve currently monitors and analyses 33% of the global ecommerce market. And, combining this […]