June 4, 2024 – Silicon Valley – GetWhy, a Danish consumer research tech company, has secured $34.5 million in a Series A funding round. The investment was led by California-based venture capital firm PeakSpan Capital. This round marks a significant milestone for GetWhy as it pushes forward in the AI-driven market research sector.
Innovating Market Research
GetWhy specializes in helping businesses conduct market studies and extract actionable insights from video interviews using artificial intelligence. The platform’s robust client roster includes global giants such as Nestlé, McDonald’s, Nike, and L’Oréal. This latest funding round underscores investor confidence in AI’s potential to transform traditional market research methods.
Jonas Nielsen, GetWhy’s chief marketing officer, highlighted the platform’s capabilities, stating, “Our platform integrates with global panels of consumers and has a specialist recruitment team to ensure fast participant recruitment. We conduct unmoderated interviews online via video, capturing responses from desktops or mobile devices.”
The Power of Bloom
Central to GetWhy’s platform is Bloom, an advanced AI system designed to analyze video responses and provide qualitative insights. Bloom’s generative AI model is trained on hundreds of thousands of interview sessions, enabling it to identify relevant quotes and aggregate insights efficiently.
Nielsen elaborated, “The AI technology kicks in when, for example, 10 consumers have been interviewed. It is trained to do what a human researcher normally would do: go through all the videos and find relevant quotes to the business questions in the qualitative study. This process, which would typically take a researcher days or weeks, is completed by our AI in less than 25 minutes.”
From Consultancy to Tech Powerhouse
Founded in 2011 as UserTribe, GetWhy began as a consultancy offering user research and testing. The company’s transformation into a technology-driven firm began in 2017 when founder and CEO Jonas Alexandersson appointed Casper Henningsen as chief commercial officer. Henningsen, a former professional football player, shifted the company’s focus to AI-driven market research, leading to the rebranding to GetWhy in January 2024.
Growth and Future Prospects
PeakSpan Capital’s investment in GetWhy is its first significant round of institutional funding. Before this, GetWhy raised approximately $30 million from Scandinavian business angels and financial bodies, including Denmark’s AL Bank and the Danish Growth Fund. This latest funding brings GetWhy’s total raised to $64.5 million.
Henningsen expressed optimism about the future, stating, “This funding will allow us to scale our technology and expand our market presence. We aim to make market research faster, more accurate, and accessible to businesses worldwide.”
Transforming Market Research: My Perspective
From my point of view, GetWhy represents a pivotal shift in how market research is conducted. Traditional methods, often slow and labor-intensive, are being replaced by efficient, AI-powered processes. The ability to analyze video interviews and extract insights within minutes is a game-changer, particularly for large corporations needing rapid, data-driven decision-making.
However, there are potential drawbacks. As AI handles more tasks traditionally performed by humans, there could be concerns about the loss of nuanced understanding that human researchers provide. Moreover, ensuring the AI’s accuracy and reliability remains critical, especially given the high stakes of market research outcomes.
In conclusion, GetWhy’s innovative approach, backed by significant funding, positions it at the forefront of the market research revolution. The integration of AI in this field promises not only to streamline processes but also to deliver deeper, more actionable insights, setting a new standard for the industry.
