The Brandtech Group brings together content, commerce and community, fusing Acorn-i with Jellyfish to create Jellyfish Commerce

Move creates market-leading offer in the fast-growing retail media and ecommerce sector

Acorn-i, a leading technology-driven ecommerce and retail media company, has integrated with Jellyfish, the global digital marketing business and fellow Brandtech Group company. Together, they create a dynamic entity within Jellyfish: Jellyfish Commerce, a platform-first digital commerce and retail media powerhouse that will combine content, commerce and community, fueled with pioneering AI technology.

Acorn-i, established in 2018 and later acquired by the Brandtech Group in 2022, was founded by Amazon alumni Claire Leon and Ross Caveille, with James Poll as CTO. It boasts cutting-edge, AI-driven proprietary SaaS technology, as well as valuable partnerships with major retail platforms, including Amazon, Shopify, Walmart and TikTok. It is one of the Group’s fastest-growing companies. Jellyfish, founded in 2005 and acquired by the Brandtech Group in June 2023, offers a comprehensive suite of content, media, and data solutions supported by its advanced technology suite, J+. Along with The Brandtech Group, Jellyfish is supporting its clients in unlocking the full potential of generative AI, which is defining a new era for brands.

The newly formed Jellyfish Commerce will be a leading player in the ecommerce industry, an industry worth more than $3 trillion in 2023, according to Statista. Its unrivalled combination of expertise, data-led consumer shopping insights and proprietary technology guarantees exceptional marketing and sales performance at scale. Its solutions simplify the complex ecommerce landscape and equip retail brands with the precise data needed to make well-informed investment decisions while accurately assessing the impact of marketing spend on purchase intent, ensuring brands stand out on the ever-competitive digital shelf.

Acorn-i’s Co-Founders, Claire Leon and Ross Caveille will become the Global Leads of the newly-formed Jellyfish Commerce while remaining as Founders and Directors of Acorn-i. ”Our aim has always been to provide retail and ecommerce brands with powerful solutions that deliver faster, superior results. With our cutting-edge omnichannel software and services, combined with Jellyfish’s platform-first approach and their remarkable ability to harness technology and expertise for exceptional outcomes, we’re pioneering an ecommerce solution that will redefine the game for brands. We just can’t wait to get started.”

Jellyfish CEO Nick Emery is delighted to have them on board. “Claire and Ross are brilliant founders, geniuses at commerce and all-round amazing human beings. We are creating some incredible solutions for clients together. There’s a lot of noise in the market around commerce but no one is actually doing what clients’ want and integrating consulting, content and activation in one place.”

The integration is effective immediately.

Jellyfish is a global digital marketing business that partners with brands to achieve and optimise their marketing performance in a platform world. Clients include Bissell, Deckers Brands, Netflix and Google.

Jellyfish helps brands navigate, connect, and harness the platforms that drive growth and engagement. Employing almost 2,000 people across 38 offices globally, the business combines agency services, consultancy, training and technology to help shape the digital future of its clients.

Launched in 2005, Jellyfish has become one of the industry’s most globally certified companies across Google Marketing Platform, Google Cloud, Salesforce, Amazon, and Meta.

Jellyfish is part of The Brandtech Group, whose mission is to be the best company in the world at helping global brands drive growth by connecting content, data and media using technology.

The Brandtech Group is the world’s #1 digital-only marketing group and the leading global generative AI marketing company. It was founded in June 2015 (as You & Mr Jones) by former Havas Global CEO David Jones, with the simple mission to help brands do their marketing better, faster and cheaper using technology. It was renamed The Brandtech Group in January 2022.

Today it is the largest global digital content partner for many of the world’s biggest brands and companies, often using its unique in-housing model. It works with eight of the world’s top 10 global advertisers and 49 of the world’s top 100. Clients include adidas, Banco Itaú, Danone, Google, Intuit, LVMH, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Reckitt, Renault-Nissan, PayPal, TikTok and Unilever.

Its most recent acquisition was Pencil, the only generative AI marketing company that is powered by $1BN in media spend. In addition, the Group invests in cutting-edge marketing technology companies and has been active in the AI, AR and the metaverse spaces since 2015. The Group was the very first external investor in Niantic (creators of Pokémon Go), alongside other investments such as AI Foundation (2018), Automat (AI chatbots, 2016), Elsy (AI media planning, 2016), Jivox (dynamic automated content,, 2016), Crossing Minds (deep learning AI recommendation system, 2017), VidMob (automated content, 2018), CreativeX (AI-driven content optimization, 2022), Zappar (AR, 2017), Provenance (blockchain, 2022) and GGP (the world’s largest gaming fund).

The Group is one of the most prominent marketing industry voices on the prediction and movement to AI-driven marketing, including generative AI. It was named one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies 2021 by Fast Company, and by CB Insights as one of the World’s Most Valuable Private Unicorns

Also published in: MartechSeries