Kantar acquired Numerator in 2021, in a deal reportedly worth around $1.5bn, with a view to supporting the Worldpanel division and its US ad intelligence business. 

Numerator combines first-party data from US households with technology to offer consumer insights for the market research industry, while Worldpanel’s shopper data business covers 49 countries outside North America. Both are used by global FMCG manufacturers and retailers for consumer behaviour data.

Numerator chief executive Eric Belcher (pictured) will lead the new combined organisation, which will operate globally under the name Numerator and will employ 5,800 people globally.

Guillaume Bacuvier, current chief executive of Worldpanel, will continue to lead the international business outside of North America, reporting to Belcher.

The combined organisation, headquartered in Chicago, will offer first-party data representing almost five billion consumers globally, according to Kantar.

Belcher said: “Numerator and Worldpanel capture over one million global shopping trips daily, and we use patented methodology to process them. Our ownership of this data ensures that it is complete and unrestricted, meeting the growing demand for domain-specific data to fuel AI models.”