A Taco Bell restaurant in Laguna Beach, California.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC
Yum Brands announced on Tuesday that it had purchased Kvantum, a company that uses artificial intelligence to gain consumer insights and marketing performance analysis.
The owner of Taco Bell plans to use the acquisition to optimize his marketing spending, giving him an edge over fast-food rivals. In the last decade, trading in the restaurant industry has expanded, from adding more portfolio brands to acquiring technology that can drive sales growth for the buyer.
Several of Yum’s international markets have already worked with Kvantum, from the United States, founded in 2012.
“Kvantum is an innovator in data analysis and marketing optimization and has a proven track record of delivering significant value to several of our international markets, enabling data-based marketing decisions to increase sales and better leverage media budgets,” Yum Chief Digital and Technology Officer Clay Johnson said in a statement.
In 2015, Yum acquired Collider Lab, a consulting firm that hires sociologists and anthropologists to provide consumer information based on culture. Yum plans to combine the newly acquired machine learning approach with data from the Collider Lab.
The Kvantum business unit will still consult with customers outside the restaurant sector, once it is part of Yum. The deal is expected to close at the end of the first quarter, subject to standard closing conditions. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Yum’s shares fell less than 1% in morning trading. The shares rose 12% last year, giving them a market value of $ 31.3 billion.