The partnership will bring together the specialists under the Strat7 umbrella, with the aim of developing ‘data-driven’ strategies.

Established in 2011, ResearchBods focuses on customer data collection via its ex-plor platform, while Bonamy Finch specialises in customer segmentation, brand tracking, product optimisation and predictive modelling. Start-up LiFE, a third specialist in the group, has been launched to offer data enrichment services using machine learning and AI.

Brien (pictured), who was appointed as non-executive chairman of Bonamy Finch in 2018, will lead Strat7 as chief executive. He will work alongside the group’s management team: ResearchBods’ Jonathan Clough and Robin Hilton; Leigh Morris and Paul Carney of Bonamy Finch and LiFE’s Michael Fisher.

The new group is backed by private equity firm Horizon Capital. The financial terms were not disclosed, but Strat7 said the investment would aid its ‘future acquisitive and organic growth’.

The group has offices in London, Leeds and Surrey, and clients include Asda, Coca-Cola and Disney.

Brien said: “It is becoming challenging for organisations to harness information at scale – let alone apply these insights to increasingly complex businesses at speed. We saw an opportunity to bring together best in class specialisms that span the range of data services to help organisations deliver data for decision making. I look forward to helping build our capabilities even further to meet the evolving needs of our clients”.

Adam Lewis, partner at Horizon Capital said, “We identified the customer insight and analytics market to be a high-growth, fragmented market. The combination of ResearchBods and Bonamy Finch represents a compelling offering for enterprise customers, with market-leading technology and analytics capabilities that deliver significant ROI. We look forward to working with Barrie and the wider management team to help the business realise its growth ambitions and to supporting further acquisitions.”