Every month we will be featuring UK startups who are at the frontiers of innovation. For December, we are putting the spotlight on DigitalMR. Leveraging AI and big data analytics, this startup helps brands get customer insights with next-generation market research.

Company Name: DigitalMR
Founder: Michalis Michael
Based in: London, UK
Launched: 2010

In simple terms, what does your startup do?

DigitalMR is a tech company that uses Artificial Intelligence for market research and customer insights. We help companies connect the dots and synthesise insights by integrating social listening data with tracking surveys, qualitative research, and retail measurements, enabling a well-rounded view of brand health.

What problem/s do you seek to solve or help?

We develop and market digital platforms that help companies make better, affordable products and services, that in turn help improve people’s quality of life. Our ultimate goal is the democratisation of the market research industry, making its services available and affordable to companies of all sizes, including startups and SMEs.

We identify four macro-areas where our tools can impact positively on business:

• Increase revenue by helping create better products for customers
• Reduce cost by leveraging the internet, community panels, the social web
• Reduce or eliminate risk to fail with marketing investment
• Make lives easier by letting DigitalMR provide with the actionable business insights that will make success look like a walk in the park!

Are you funded and how?

DigitalMR has done three friends & family rounds and has won six grants from the UK government and one from the EU to conduct R&D.

What were you doing before you started DigitalMR?

Prior to moving to London and establishing DigitalMR I was a corporate executive with Synovate in Europe and the US, and RGIS in the US. My career in market research started in 1991 in Cyprus and Saudi Arabia, I have since lived and worked in numerous countries including Hungary, Poland and the USA.

I regard myself as a market researcher with engineering background and focus on using Artificial Intelligence for Customer Insights. My particular expertise entails social media research, Big Data Analytics, online communities and data integration. Primarily focusing on digital research, I had as clients numerous blue chip multinational corporations at headquarters, regional and local country levels, including Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Coca Cola, Tesco, Saxo Bank, Nielsen, and TNS. I have extensive experience in the FMCG, Retail, Financial Services, Healthcare, Telecoms, and Automotive industries.

An aerospace engineer by academic background, I received my business training through courses at Harvard Business School and London Business School.
The DigitalMR Team 

What inspired you to start DigitalMR?

Being a part of the market research industry for so many years, and observing the rapid shift towards technology in our everyday lives, I realised that no industry and no service would be left unaffected. When DigitalMR was established there was no other digital market research specialist claiming the space while at the same time digital advertising agencies had been around for years. I thought it was odd. I decided to start DigitalMR to be an agent of change within the market research industry. I go by the principles “nothing is impossible” and “if you can imagine it, it can be done”.

What are your goals over the next 5 years? Where do see yourself and DigitalMR?

In the next 5 years we aim to become the preferred supplier of social media research to organisations globally, by providing unique business insights through innovative digital solutions developed by our specially skilled researchers, data scientists, and software engineers. We will establish one office in the US and one in Asia in order to be able to service all time zones. We intend to have a “follow the sun” operational model.

Images courtesy of DigitalMR. To learn more, visit the DigitalMR website.

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