Dotdigital acquires Fresh Relevance for £25 Million

In a bid to strengthen its positioning in the digital marketing sphere, UK-based Dotdigital Group plc has recently announced it is acquiring cross-channel personalisation vendor Fresh Relevance for a total consideration of £25.0 million. The acquisition, settled fully at completion, saw £18.9 million paid out in cash from Dotdigital’s reserve while the remaining £6.1 million was met with the issuance of 6,862,683 new ordinary shares in the company, priced at 88.698p per share. Such shares carry a 12-month lock-in agreement.

The use of Dotdigital’s own cash reserves underscored the company’s financial health, leaving an impressive £38.3 million post-acquisition. This puts Dotdigital in a robust position to explore further strategic acquisition opportunities, promising dynamic future growth.

With this acquisition, Dotdigital promptly extends its personalized experiences to a wider scope of channels including websites, applications, and throughout the social media landscape – an extension that is supremely catered to current digital consumer trends.

Founded in 2013, Fresh Relevance quickly gained traction as a key vendor in the optimization of customer journeys and the resolution of data aggregation challenges in the eCommerce space. Its portfolio of services encompasses personalized customer experiences, onsite popovers, behavioral and geotargeting, optimization, and customer data management.

Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance had already enjoyed a flourishing business partnership prior to this acquisition, integrating their technologies to provide mutual customers with value and seamless experience.

Fresh Relevance will sustain its existing brand identity under the new structure. Mike Austin, CEO and Founder of Fresh Relevance, lauds the move. “I am thrilled to be joining forces with Dotdigital, an organization whose values align so closely with ours,” he said.

Austin will retain his leadership position, stepping into his new role as Senior Vice President of Personalization at Dotdigital, while Fresh Relevance will continue operating under its existing brand. The company’s customers are assured of experiencing the same high levels of service as Dotdigital invests in its future.

The newly united companies hold an identical commitment to tech innovations that bolster the ability of marketing teams to customize consumer experiences across every touch point of the buying journey. A future emphasis will be placed on their combined potential to deliver bespoke customer experiences and extend sophisticated personalizations across an array of channels, boosting return on investment while building brand loyalty on a global scale.

A forward step in this union will be visible once equity shares are admitted to trade on the AIM and will set a path for Dotdigital’s innovations to reach a larger geographical audience, including regions within the Americas and the Asia-Pacific markets. With such robust business foundations, Dotdigital’s future vision skewers towards enabling clientele to deliver an increasingly higher quality of customer experience.

As an integral player in the digital marketing industry, Dotdigital has long championed user-centric browsing experiences powered by artificial intelligence. This acquisition expands Dotdigital’s reach, allowing the company to extend personalized AI-powered experiences across websites, apps, social media, and more.

Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance wield a shared commitment to innovating technological solutions that empower marketing teams to optimize ROI and customer experiences. In the future, they aim to harness their combined strengths to build offerings that extend personalization and consumer experiences across even more channels and touchpoints.     

– Milan Patel, CEO of Dotdigital Group

The acquisition represents a strategic win for Dotdigital. The future seems bright for enabling clientele to deliver an even higher quality of customer experience.