Technology

Yum Brands to buy AI-based consumer insights company

Photo: iStock.

March 2, 2021

Yum Brands Inc., parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and The Habit Burger Grill, has signed a deal to buy AI-based customer insights and marketing analytics firm, Kvantum Inc. The restaurants will use the platform to better understand and act on consumer behavior data, according to a company press release.

Kvantum uses a combination of machine learning and econometric modeling to operate its platform and measure marketing-tactic effects in any area across owned, paid and earned channels.

"Technology strategies that elevate the customer and employee experience and lead to smart, data-driven marketing decisions are critical to keeping our brands R.E.D. (relevant, easy to access and distinctive) and delivering growth for our franchisees and shareholders," Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs said in the release. "We're excited about the opportunity this acquisition presents, and the potential to scale Kvantum's proven technologies across our system to strengthen our data and advanced analytics capabilities and elevate our world-class marketing competencies globally."

Yum! Brands' global technology strategy is focused on providing a best-in-class digital journey across mobile, online, delivery and restaurant operations. The company plans to combine Kvantum's artificial intelligence and machine learning approach to understanding human behavior with the skillsets of the anthropologists and sociologists at Collider Lab, a culture-based consumer insights and marketing strategy consultancy Yum acquired in 2015.

"We've been fortunate to work with many leading companies over the years, including Yum Brands, to help them make data-driven marketing decisions to increase sales," Kvantum CEO Shilpi Sharma said in the release. "We're proud that our work has made Kvantum an attractive candidate for a transaction of this kind, and we're thrilled to join an iconic global company like Yum! Brands," said Sharma.

The Kvantum business unit, as part of Yum Brands, will continue to offer their consultancy services to external clients outside of the restaurant industry. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2021, subject to standard closing conditions.

Yum Brands, based in Louisville, Kentucky, has over 50,000 restaurants in more than 150 countries and territories.