Elixirr, the established, global award-winning challenger consultancy, today announces the acquisition of Hypothesis, the US-based disruptive insights and strategy firm.
“bringing the consumer to the decision-making table”
With Hypothesis’ expertise in insights and strategy, Elixirr is now even better placed to deliver end-to-end solutions to existing and new clients – from the initial deep research and discovery through to defining the strategy and developing the technology required to deliver valuable impact.
Hypothesis’ impressive roster of premium clients, including five of the Magnificent Seven, with a particular focus on the consumer, technology and entertainment industries, is highly complementary to Elixirr’s established strategy, digital, data, AI and innovation offering. The natural alignment between both firms’ challenger DNA and emphasis on “bringing the consumer to the decision-making table” further cements the partnership and offers mutually beneficial opportunities.
Hypothesis’ strong US presence and stellar reputation will also help accelerate Elixirr’s growth in the region as the firm continues to expand its presence across blue-chip client bases.
The Group has already worked closely alongside Hypothesis on a client engagement prior to the acquisition, validating the cross-sell potential of the combined proposition. This engagement involved conducting research to inform the brand strategy for a UK-based wealth and insurance client.
Through this acquisition, Hypothesis’ CEO, Maria Vallis, will now join Elixirr as Partner, based out of Los Angeles, California. With extensive experience as a researcher, Maria carries the Hypothesis torch and brings with her a team of ambitious individuals set on challenging the status quo.
Commenting on today’s news, Stephen Newton, CEO and Founder of Elixirr, said: “We first met the Hypothesis team about 18 months ago, and the opportunity to join forces has consistently excited us ever since those very first discussions. With our challenger DNA and focus on high performance, both Elixirr and Hypothesis are premium brands that work with premium clients. The acquisition will further solidify the strong reputation we’ve been building and bring rigour to our research and insights offering.
“We’re excited to welcome Maria to the Partner team as we accelerate our growth in the US. Her esteemed reputation – trusted by a high calibre of clients across additive and complementary industries – will make her a great addition to the team. Maria and Hypothesis’ expertise will help us solidify the strong reputation we’ve been building in the US market, which remains a key priority for us.”
Maria Vallis, Hypothesis CEO, comments: “The Hypothesis team is excited to join forces with the Elixirr Group as we’re now able to take our insights and recommendations further and can do more to solve our clients’ business issues. Considering that Hypothesis was founded with the goal of disrupting the research and insights industry, it was important to us to join a firm who had similar ethos. We believe that we have found this with Elixirr.
“The combination of capabilities between Hypothesis and the Elixirr Group is really powerful and will enable us to deliver even more impact to our collective client base. Elixirr’s strong expertise across different verticals, including financial services, healthcare and insurance, alongside the ability to add data, AI, digital and innovation capabilities to our skillset is really exciting to us and we look forward to seeing what our teams can accomplish together.”
Hypothesis was founded in 2000 by Maria Stark and Jeff Seltzer to be a different kind of insights agency and disrupt their industry.
Hypothesis Founders comment: “Nearly 25 years ago, we started a new kind of agency that embraced creativity and empowered our people to do great work for great clients. We’re extremely proud of what we built, and what we accomplished with the help of the industry’s best and brightest people. It’s been incredible to watch the next generation of Hypothesis leadership evolve and grow the company while still embracing our original founding vision. Today, the transition is complete, and we’re truly excited to watch Hypothesis and Elixirr disrupt and challenge the industry, and to continue helping the world’s best brands do amazing things.”
By remaining laser-focused on bringing new and valuable capabilities to Elixirr’s client base on a continual basis, the firm continues to scale and build its reputation in new markets through strategic acquisitions.
Dentons, which acted as legal counsel to Elixirr, is a London-based law firm representing clients ranging from Fortune 500 and emerging growth companies to venture capital firms, private equity firms and investment banks. BDO provides financial advisory services to companies across all sectors of the economy and represented Elixirr in the transaction. JEGI CLARITY, a pre-eminent M&A advisory firm for the media, marketing, information and technology industries, represented Hypothesis Group in this transaction. Sklar Kirsh LLP, which acted as legal counsel to Hypothesis, is a California law firm that provides sophisticated and expert advice in the areas of corporate, real estate, bankruptcy, and entertainment law as well as commercial, real estate and entertainment litigation.
