EXCLUSIVE: Largo.ai, the AI-driven solutions provider for the film, TV and advertising industries, which is backed by Sylvester Stallone, has acquired London-based market research technology and consultancy firm QuMind.
The deal will combine Largo.ai’s patented Simulated Audience technology, an AI version of traditional audience focus groups that has a 90% accuracy rate, with QuMind’s market insight platform and deep sector expertise. It’s a move that looks set to empower marketers to optimize speed to decision, reduce costs and fine-tune and de-risk campaigns and product launches to maximise return on investment.
Largo.ai currently works with more than 600 companies, including several Hollywood studios and large agencies and, according to the company, the acquisition of QuMind is part of a drive of “its ambitious growth plans within the advertising and marketing vertical” with a new London-based presence.
With Largo.ai’s Simulated Audience technology, its unique value lies in the creation of digital twins via a patented questionnaire, which produces superior quality twins when compared to those created using synthetic data methods. These authentic, data-driven profiles of real individuals allow users to evaluate the potential impact of their new ideas. This includes predicting emotional responses, assessing likeability, estimating purchase intent and getting qualitative feedback via one-to-one chats with Twins.
Unlike other AI tools that rely on synthetic personas, Largo.ai is aiming to set a new industry standard for precision and realism. With thousands of digital twins available per country across more than 20 global markets, the platform enables, for example, a UK-based marketer to gain reliable, localized insights from a Japanese audience in under an hour, combining both qualitative and quantitative feedback.
All profiles are refreshed annually to ensure continued accuracy.
“We’re excited to be joining forces with QuMind, who share our vision for redefining the future of AI-assisted market insights,” said Largo.ai CEO and co-founder Sami Arpa. “As an early pioneer in AI-powered analytics, QuMind is perfectly aligned with our mission to enhance, not replace, human creativity and expertise. AI is a powerful took to augment decision-making, accelerate innovation and unlock deeper audience understanding.
“By combining Largo.ai’s cutting edge technology with QuMind’s deep industry knowledge, we’re not just moving faster, we’re thinking smarter and connecting more meaningfully with consumers. Working together, we hope to push the boundaries whilst respecting the creative contributions that make advertising content magic.”
QuMind CEO and founder Mark Ursell added: “We’re thrilled to be teaming up with Largo to push the boundaries of AI-assisted market insights and deliver next level AI-driven data that clients can trust. To date, the increased use of synthetic data has raised serious issues of data provenance and the quality of data – something that the marketing insights industry has yet to fully solve. The Largo approach of using a patented ‘walled garden’ data set, generated via a questionnaire, solves these challenges head on. In so doing, it marks a pivotal time for the marketing insights industry, and we’re excited to bring it to market.”
Largo.ai’s acquisition of QuMind builds on its launch of its Brands Suite, a platform designed to help brands and advertising agencies test campaigns, concepts and products, streamlining the creative development process. The company recently announced the closure of its Series A financing round and secured Sylvester Stallone as a strategic partner and investor.
Launched in 2020, in collaboration with Swiss university Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne (EPFL), Largo.ai is headquartered at the EPFL Innovation Park in Lausanne, an ecosystem for start-ups and companies.
