Bazaarvoice, an online product reviews and brand reputation company that has been a pillar of Austin's modern tech ecosystem, has made its fifth-ever acquisition.
It announced Wednesday that it has acquired New York-based product discovery startup Influenster, which was founded by Elizabeth Scherle and Aydin Acar in 2010. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
Bazaarvoice told Inno that it will offer all 75 or so Influenster employees their same job role.
"Because this acquisition is complementary to Bazaarvoice’s business model, we believe that we will open new job opportunities in the future as we grow," a company representative said.
The move gives Bazaarvoice a big boost in terms of its network reach -- Influenster has roughly 6 million community members globally and has collected 38 million product reviews. Bazaarvoice, meanwhile, has a network of 6,000 global brand and retail websites.
The deal will help Bazaarvoice, which was founded in 2005 and went public before being taken private by Marlin Equity Partners in 2018, deepen its offerings in an increasingly competitive market for technologies that help manage brand reputation and give consumers the authentic reviews they're looking for.
“The decision to join forces with Influenster epitomizes Bazaarvoice’s commitment to connecting brands with consumers and consumers with one another through user-generated content,” Joe Davis, CEO of Bazaarvoice, said in a statement. “Influenster’s product sampling and review generation offerings further strengthen our core product ratings and reviews solutions, and their hyper-targeting and gamification capabilities will allow us to better support brands’ broader marketing initiatives."
Bazaarvoice has made five acquisitions in its history. The most recent was Chicago-based AddStructure, which it scooped up for undisclosed terms in 2018.
