Started in the late 1990s by a team of co-founders that had known each other for decades, eMarketer had grown into one of the most respected authorities on all things digital. Their unique and comprehensive coverage of statistics, information and research across the digital advertising, mobile, e-commerce and technology landscapes was drawn from thousands of sources all over the world, and had allowed them to build a highly profitable, subscription business without ever having to raise significant capital. Additionally, the Company’s brand was among the most well-known in the industry, and they could count some of the largest advertising agencies, technology companies, media companies and brands in the world as their customers.
By 2011, the senior management team at the company, including Terry Chabrowe, co-founder & CEO, realized that the increased focus from large enterprises on shaping their strategy in the rapidly changing digital world represented a very significant and exciting growth opportunity for the Company. At the same time, he knew that to fully capture this market opportunity, it would be highly valuable to find a partner with experience scaling growth stage businesses in order to maximize eMarketer’s potential.
Ken Fox and Ron Shah at Stripes had been building a relationship with Terry and his team for nearly a year by this point, and it became clear that there was terrific alignment between what eMarketer’s founding team hoped to accomplish, and the experiences and resources the Stripes team brought to the table. Stripes invested in late 2011, and has since assisted the eMarketer team with accelerating the build- out of their sales organization, bolstering the board of directors, refining their international expansion strategy and making key potential client introductions. The company’s client base continues to grow, and even still eMarketer is just scratching the surface of the market opportunity given the value it can provide to the enterprise.
In 2016, Axel Springer SE agreed to buy eMarketer as part of its push into digital businesses and English-speaking markets.
The information noted above is representative as of the time noted/September 2019 and has not been updated.