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Marketing technology platform BrightTag has acquired fellow Chicago tech company Signal for an undisclosed amount.
Signal, which provides marketing software to SMBs, has employees working in Indianapolis, New York and in Chicago out of 1871. The team, which is led by co-founder and CEO Jeff Judge, will now join the fast-growing 100-person BrightTag team.
BrightTag, which has worldwide customers such as Yahoo Japan, Allstate and GAP, has been looking to increase its tools in the small business space, BrightTag CEO Mike Sands said.
"Signal's existing product set and expertise in delivering self-service, on-demand solutions to marketers is ideal for expanding BrightTag's appeal to an entirely new segment of the market," Sands said. "BrightTag has emphasized solutions in media and digital marketing for enterprises, whereas Signal specializes in social, mobile and local marketing for small and mid-sized firms."
Thanks to a total of $50 million in funding from investors such as I2A, Epic and Pritzker Group, BrightTag has the means to get into this space. It makes sense that Sands would make a move to work with six-year-old Signal: both Sands and Judge were former execs at Orbitz and have a long history of supporting Chicago tech.
"BrightTag is providing the four-person Signal team with the resources to continue growing its business, including geographic expansion, development and infrastructure resources, as well as marketing support," Sands said.
BrightTag has been bringing attention to Chicago tech by promising to add 100 jobs to its Chicago team over the next two years, by exceeding 250 percent revenue growth this year and, most recently and by winning a Red Herring award for being one of the 100 most innovative companies in North America.
