Yum Brands is buying a Texas-based technology company called Kvantum that will enable the quick-service chain operator to measure the performance of marketing programs in specific geographies, the company announced on Tuesday.
The deal, expected to close by the end of the first quarter, will give the Louisville, Ky.-based company a business that uses machine learning to understand consumer behavior. The business will be used to help Yum with marketing and digital programs for its four fast-food brands KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger.
Kvantum already works with Yum’s concepts in a number of global markets. Yum apparently likes it enough to buy that business and bring it in-house.
“Kvantum is an innovator in data analytics and marketing optimization and has a proven track record of delivering significant value to several of our international markets by enabling data-driven marketing decisions to increase sales and better leverage media budgets,” Clay Johnson, Yum’s chief digital and technology officer, said in a statement.
He said the acquisition will allow Yum “to apply a disciplined marketing sciences program at scale and fast-track our data and analytics strategy.”
It’s not the first time that Yum has acquired a technology business it liked to bring it in house—the company’s Pizza Hut business bought QuikOrder in 2018 and in 2015 Yum acquired Collider Lab, a consumer insights consultancy.
Yum plans to combine Kvantum’s approach with the anthropologists and sociologists at Collider. Yum believes the combination “will yield even deeper consumer and brand insights” to help advance its marketing strategies around the world.
The acquisition is part of Yum’s overall strategy to improve digital access of its brands around the world. The company is using data and analytics and emerging technologies to improve the customer experience and unit economics and find new avenues of growth.
Kvantum was founded in 2012 by Shilpi Sharma, its CEO, and Harpreet Singh, its chief technology officer. Kvantum develops algorithms and artificial intelligence models to help brands understand consumer behavior and make informed media decisions.
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