ItemMaster, a Chicago startup that helps companies produce product photos and information for better packaging, has been acquired by Gladson, an e-commerce product management company.
ItemMaster helps brands make better product labels, ensuring that the information is accurate and engaging to customers. The startup gives companies a platform to update their information online, allowing brands to better categorize their inventory. The startup has raised $7.5 million in funding to date, according to Crunchbase, from investors including Chicago Ventures and New Jersey-based Edison Partners.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Gladson, a Chicago-based portfolio company of The Jordan Company and Wicks Capital Partners, said acquiring ItemMaster will allow it to "provide accurate product data to an expanded network of market participants through its high-quality audit capabilities."
ItemMaster was founded in 2009 as a subsidiary of Peapod, a local grocery delivery business, and was designed to help distribute photos for the company. It was spun out as an independent company in 2016.
ItemMaster has grown quickly since then as it now provides packaging information for more than 1,700 brands. Its customers include big names like Amazon, Pepsi, Walmart, Unilever and P&G.
“Our firm has had a vision of helping to modernize the marketplace and revolutionize how product imagery and information can drive retailer and brand marketing in the 21st century,” ItemMaster CEO Dev Ganesan said in a statement. “Content is the core of a great shopper experience, and by joining Gladson we can ensure that our clients provide the best content to their shoppers, online and in the store.”
ItemMaster is the latest in a string of recent acquisitions for Gladson. It acquired Nashville tech company Edgenet earlier this week. And last June it bought Nutritionix, the largest verified nutrition database in the world.
