Text Analytics Firm To Accelerate Product Development And US Expansion

Irwin Mitchell’s corporate team has advised YFM Equity Partners (YFM) on its £5m growth capital investment in fast-growing text analytics platform, Relative Insight.

Relative Insight provides comparative text analytics software that helps organisations generate actionable insights from text. Its platform and the AI-based analysis techniques highlight critical differences in consumer language to drive deeper insights into digital marketing, consumer analytics and customer experience.

The business operates from offices in London, New York and Lancaster, and has a growing international client base including Starbucks, General Mills, and Sky.

The investment from YFM will enable Relative Insight to further grow its customer base; expand its operations in the US; and continue to develop its platform to provide greater customer insights and data integrations for its clients.

YFM has a growing national portfolio of software and tech businesses, including data transformation software company Matillion and innovation intelligence provider Vypr (on which investment Irwin Mitchell also advised).

Adam Kaucher, Corporate partner at Irwin Mitchell, along with Greg Mazgajczyk and James King, advised the YFM team which comprised of Dan Freed, Laura Sisson and Ian Waterfield.

Expert Opinion

“Relative Insight is clearly a leader in its field and it is now at a very exciting stage in its growth plan. The business has huge potential and this funding from YFM will help it to expand and take advantage of international markets where demand has already been shown to be very high.” Adam Kaucher - Partner

Dan Freed, partner at YFM, added: “Data and text analytics is a rapidly expanding market and one with huge potential given the ever-increasing demand for improved business intelligence, and customer insights. The Relative Insight platform is a compelling proposition helping companies to understand why things happen. The heritage of the business resonates with us, and we believe it is a best-in-class platform led by an experienced and very impressive management team.”

Ben Hookway, CEO of Relative Insight commented: “With an ever-increasing amount of data available to businesses, many are struggling to make sense of this valuable information. This can prove vital in understanding what is causing business outcomes, and what can be done to change them. Our platform is able to rapidly analyse millions of words and compare them across a range of variables to highlight the critical differences in consumer language, helping to explain market trends, customer behaviour and provide actionable insight including making communication more effective with target audiences.

“Having seen rapid growth over the last four years, the business is now embarking on the next stage of its journey as we expand in the US. We believe that YFM is the ideal partner to support us. As well as having an established track record scaling SaaS businesses, they have a real understanding of our market and are a great fit culturally - we like the team and are confident they will add real value.”