Insights is Ripe for Consolidation
Joining forces is the smartest plan to wait out the economy
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." I've always wanted to use this quote, and there could be no better quote to describe the state of the insights industry in early 2025. The market is full of optimism about how AI can transform the insights and data space for the better. New companies are popping up every day, solving once-impossible problems using AI. At the same time, the traditional insights community is facing headwinds from multiple directions. This article focuses on the latter, offering a point of view on where things stand, what options companies have, and where we might go next.
First, let's build a simple mental framework to make this easier to digest. At a high level, I'm breaking companies down based on size and market position:
Multinational Strategics: Think IPSOS, Kantar, Nielsen, and NIQ/GfK. These are the big players with deep customer relationships and a sizable global footprint. Most are over the $1 billion revenue mark, and they’ve been around forever.
Mid-Tier Incumbents: These are companies that have grown past start-up mode and now pull in over $100 million. They’re chipping away at the multinationals with more agile offers. Examples include Dynata, Toluna Group, YouGov, Sago, and Cint.
Boutiques & Specialists: These are sub-$100 million companies. Some are boutique research firms focused on client service. Others are specialists with niche products in areas like ad testing or B2B research. Think UpWave, MFour, Suzy, and many more.
These categories aren’t unique to insights, but how capital flows between them has changed dramatically in the past five years.
It used to be that a start-up with a cool idea would grow, threaten the bigger players, and eventually get acquired. This exit path, powered by cheap capital and enthusiastic acquirers, was pretty standard. Private equity followed close behind, buying into everything from GfK to Dynata. The money was easy, and deals were everywhere.
The Slow Big Co's
Fast forward to today. Capital markets are tight. Interest rates are the highest they’ve been in over a decade. The big players are sitting on debt, and IPO dreams are fading. Kantar left WPP in 2019, tried spinning off Kantar Media, and has now shelved IPO plans in favor of selling off units. Bain, its backer, has walked away from a public exit (The Stage18 team has an excellent analysis of this). Meanwhile, NielsenIQ, backed by Advent, is optimistically prepping for a $10 billion IPO this summer. IPSOS, still publicly traded, has seen a 30% drop in stock price over the last year, despite strong fundamentals. They’ll unveil new plans in their Horizon 2030 roadmap.
So that’s one player looking to exit, one chasing an IPO, and one trying to raise its stock price. None are out shopping. Maybe things change after summer, depending on how the market responds, but for companies looking to exit soon, that’s a long wait.
Mid-tier Pressure
In the mid-tier, we see a different story. Dynata pushed out a debt maturity with a pre-pack deal, buying some time. Sago (formerly Schlesinger) is backed by Gauge Capital, which has held them since 2015. Toluna has been with Verlinvest since 2011 and continues to integrate acquisitions. Cint, once a rising star, has lost 87% of its value since going public. It’s more focused on fundamentals than buying.
These firms might want to acquire, but they’ll focus on tech and AI assets that can give them leverage against the multinationals. Every acquisition now has to prove it can deliver ROI fast.
Start-up Malaise
Which brings us to the boutiques and specialists. Let’s start with boutiques.
These firms live on their relationships and consultative services. They’re not chasing scale or platforms, they’re focused on service. While their business models don’t scream “venture scale,” some still attract private equity money. Historically, they exited by becoming part of a larger firm, offering expertise or geographic expansion. That’s not happening right now. Top and mid-tier buyers are either distracted or doubling down on AI.
Now for the specialists. Many were born between 2016 and 2021, during a boom in digitized research and automation. They’re the cool kids, doing clever things with metering, sampling, brand tracking, and ad analytics. But here’s the problem: they each solve one piece of the puzzle. Brands love them, but their addressable market is limited. Growth eventually slows. And even when their product is better, big brands often go with a familiar name because procurement likes safe bets with the established vendors.
Left alone, these firms might disrupt the industry. But they don’t have the luxury of time. Investors, especially those with venture or growth equity stakes, are looking for the exit.
So...
What now? The top end of the market is distracted, the middle tier is cautious, and the little guys are left hanging. There are so many small firms where you think, “Surely they’ve been trying to sell for years.” Yes, their boards are tired of waiting. Meanwhile, new AI-native companies are rocketing past them.
Investors are also out of time. The typical hold period for VC is 5 to 7 years. For PE, it’s 7 to 10. That window has closed for many firms. Despite client wins and product advances, most haven’t scaled enough for a traditional exit.
The Strategic Buyers Aren’t Coming to the Rescue
Strategic acquirers, big agencies, research giants, and platform players, are cautious. Capital is expensive. Integration is hard. Most ResTech firms are too narrow or too small to be compelling on their own. Even the promising ones end up in a weird middle ground, too good for an acqui-hire, too small for a scale deal. And when deals happen, they favor the buyer. Investors don’t usually get the payday they hoped for.
The Case for Cashless Mergers
Instead of waiting for lifeboats or trying to raise another round, it’s time to consider cashless mergers. Combining forces could:
Achieve the revenue scale needed to attract new investors
Combine talent and reduce duplicate costs
Offer more complete solutions to clients
Strengthen negotiating power with data vendors and platforms
These deals could also give tired investors a graceful exit. They can roll equity into a new entity or structure partial liquidity tied to future milestones. Let's face it, most of the players in the ResTech or Boutique space are duplicating efforts trying to create new Generative AI solutions. That's the last thing the market needs now. Combining forces through talent and equity consolidation will allow fewer solutions to be better scoped, developed and pushed to a larger group of potential clients. A win for everyone involved.
From Fragmentation to Federation
This won’t be easy. Merging two subscale firms doesn’t guarantee success. You need cultural fit, strong leadership, and solid execution. But the alternative is slow decline, and that’s already happening.
Founders should be reaching out to peers. Pair a sampling platform with an analytics layer. Combine data collection with delivery tools. Build federated entities. Share back offices. Merge product roadmaps.
Scale Matters More than Innovation
Innovation and boutiques in Market Research aren’t dying. But the market they operate in is evolving. The AI-powered future needs platforms that blend research chops with data smarts, compliance, and real decision-making tools.
The winners won’t be the ones with the biggest Series B, or the ones with the coolest innovation. They’ll be the ones who reshape the map, the ones to achieve enough scale to start getting noticed by big clients. Cashless mergers aren’t desperate moves. Right now they’re smart, strategic, and overdue.