Ipsos accelerates the digitisation of data collection by acquiring market research platform Crownit

The acquisition aims to offer clients a more diverse and representative pool of respondents in India.

Ipsos, one of the world's market research companies, announces the acquisition of Crownit. This company provides a mobile and online panel and data collection platform, giving access to India’s community of consumers across 40 cities.

Crownit's mobile-first strategy empowers Ipsos to digitise a large part of its offline research capabilities, leveraging India's increasing mobile penetration to reach a broader spectrum of socioeconomic groups. This approach enhances digital sample representativeness, resulting in faster, high-quality data collection and improved efficiency.

Ben Page, CEO of Ipsos, commented, “This acquisition marks a significant step in expanding Ipsos India's data collection capabilities, by shifting from traditional offline methods to a more agile and efficient online approach, and by improving data quality and security. It supports our growth in India, enabling us to reach a wider audience and to gather more robust insights for our clients.”

Sameer Grover, CEO of Crownit, added: "Joining the Ipsos family is an important milestone for our company. We are excited to leverage our mobile-first platform and expertise to enhance Ipsos' data collection capabilities and support their vision of the future of market research in India. We are excited to serve our clients with combined strengths of Ipsos and Crownit.”

Speaking on the acquisition of Crownit, Amit Adarkar, CEO, Ipsos India said, “Crownit’s mobile-first capability and panel ecosystem will significantly up Ipsos’ ability to offer a high quality and representative online/ mobile access. Despite its size and maturity, Indian market research industry has not been able to drive online / mobile data collection so far. Ipsos’ acquisition of Crownit will be a game changing development for the industry. We will be able to offer our clients increased agility, as well as cutting edge innovations in data collection methodologies. This would indeed be transformational.”

Crownit’s end-to-end ecosystem streamlines data collection processes, while advanced features will provide Ipsos with a competitive edge in the market research industry locally.

Finally, this acquisition complements Ipsos’ existing online panel, iSay, by increasing online reach and representation in India. It will provide clients with access to a more diverse and representative pool of respondents, ultimately leading to richer and more actionable market intelligence.