Taboola enters into a definitive agreement to acquire Gravity R&D

Taboola has announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Gravity R&D, a leading personalisation technology company founded in data science.

Gravity R&D's core offering, Yusp, is used by leaders in retail, e-commerce, and digital media to provide personalised offers to customers to drive sales, increase average order sizes, build customer loyalty and create more positive user experiences.

Yusp’s technology is built on proprietary algorithms that focus on deep learning for personalisation – coupling contextual data and brands’ first-party data to make recommendations for shoppers.

Gravity R&D was founded in 2007 by experts in algo, deep learning and data science. Its founders, who are still part of Gravity R&D today, had tied for first place for the Netflix Prize, a public competition to find a team to improve Netflix’s recommendation technology.

Gravity R&D has customers in more than 20 countries and currently powers more than 35 billion recommendations each month for leaders in retail, e-commerce and digital media including N11, Kaunet, GoShop, La Vanguardia, and Deutsche Telekom Hungary.

As part of the pending acquisition, Taboola - which powers recommendations for the open web - will create and invest in a new research and development hub in Gravity R&D’s headquarters in Hungary. The acquisition is part of Taboola’s stated goal of investing $US100 million annually into R&D.

Adam Singolda, CEO and founder, Taboola, said: "Our investments in technology, both in team and products behind it, are what continues to give Taboola a strategic advantage."

"Welcoming the Gravity R&D to our family means Taboola grows its ability to make more sophisticated recommendations and do more in areas like dynamic creative optimisation and personalisation, to drive better outcomes for advertisers – especially those in retail and e-commerce. With a highly skilled team that has spent years perfecting this technology, there was no company better suited to help us succeed in this area."

Domonkos Tikk, CEO, Gravity R&D, said: "The competitive battlefield for customers in the retail, e-commerce and connected TV arenas continues to revolve around customer experience and personalisation.

"We’ve spent the past 12 years developing the technology to make brands’ lives easier and with Taboola, we’re excited to bring that technology to a massive new customer base."

The private transaction, terms of which are not being disclosed, is subject to customary conditions and expected to close in the second quarter of 2022.

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Top image: Adam Singolda