How Do You Do?

Since last post we’ve seen 1 M&A deal, 8 funding rounds, 14 people moves & promotions, 2 roles, 3 articles (one written by me), and 3 newly added upcoming events.

Plus, last edition’s top clicked link.

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M&A

• Findem acquired Getro (job board builder).

• IBM acquired Confluent (data streaming) for $11B.

*Deals are announced but may not be closed.

Funding

• Aaru (AI synthetic research) raised a Series A led by Redpoint Ventures.

• Algori (consumer shopper panel) raised €3.6M in a round.

• Bolt Insight (AI-powered qualitative research) raised £7M in a round led by Pembroke VCT.

• Raylu (AI dealflow for private market investors) raised $8M in a Series A led by HighlandX.

• Supper (agentic data platform) raised $11M in a Seed round led by Union Square Ventures.

• TomNext (LP-intelligence and infrastructure for private markets) raised a round led by Panghea Capital Partners.

• Unacast (location intelligence) raised $28M from Vector Capital Management.

• Wevo (AI-driven customer research platform) received an investment from Accenture.

People Moves, Promotions, and Appointments

• Iyan Adewuya joined SimCorp as Chief Product Officer.

• Phil Ahad joined Cint as Managing Director of Data.

• Sami Essayem joined Inovalon as VP of Sales, Insights.

• Joohwan Kim joined Oxford Data Plan as Sales Director.

• Jennifer Klein joined UserCue as Lead Researcher.

• Tom Munley was promoted to CEO at Analytics8.

• Katya Nelyudova joined Scientific Beta as Chief Revenue Officer.

• Lukas Otto joined Grasp as Managing Director, UK.

• Nirnay Patel joined HaloMD as Chief Data Officer.

• Okan Pekin joined Capitolis as President.

• Jane Price joined Savanta as CMO.

• David Savage was promoted to Director, Data Partners at Fintech Sandbox.

• Jake Widmer joined Datassential as Chief Innovation Architect.

• John Wren joined Kantar as SVP, Strategy & Operations.

*may not have started roles, but roles are announced or updates provided online.

Who’s Hiring

• Macabacus is hiring a AI Banking Strategist.

• Underdog is hiring a Director, Consumer Research and Insights ($176K - $210K).

*salaries only listed where provided by the company and may vary based on location and other factors. See links for specific salary details.

Resources

• Deal Tracker for full M&A and funding rounds.

• Job Board for full listings. This week’s additions are below.

• Market Map PDF, PNG, and Spreadsheet.

• Compensation Study Summary. Participate here.

What I’m Reading (and Writing)

• The Butterfly Effect of 'Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda' M&A: Why Hindsight Deal Nostalgia Makes No Sense (my attempt at some longer-form opinion content).

• Your AI Vendor Can't Save You: And why AI is the end of the insights industry's oldest constraint by Marc Ryan.

• Stop Building Faster Horses: What AI Should Really Change in Market Research by Abigail Stuart.

Upcoming Events

*new events added since last newsletter

• FISD Holiday Party, Dec 11, NYC

• Insights Association CEO Summit, Jan 20-22, Hollywood, Florida

• Data Products & platforms Summit, Jan 21-22, London

• BattleFin Discovery Day, Jan 21-23, Miami

• Samplecon, Mar 16-18, Lake Oconee, Georgia

• *QuantVision 2026: Fordham’s Quantitative Conference, Mar 19-20, NYC

• *AI in Finance Summit, Apr 15-16, NYC

• World of DaaS Summit, May 7, Washington D.C.

• *Monetising B2B Information & Events 2026, May 13, London

Wisdom

Before you send that email, ask yourself: is this a December problem or a January problem?

Favor

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Views here are the author’s own and not of any employers or companies. The author may be compensated for pieces in this newsletter.