MikMak Goes Global With Acquisition of Swaven

MikMak is going global. 

The U.S.-based ecommerce platform, which revolutionized retail and recently secured a patented technology enabling the use of multi-retail selection and checkout within online video marketing campaigns, announced the acquisition of Swaven, a Paris-based ecommerce enablement and analytics software company that operates across EMEA, APAC and LATAM.  

“I think this acquisition for MikMak is very telling of the industry and where the industry is headed,” said Rachel Tipograph, MikMak’s founder and co-host of the Brave Commerce podcast. Tipograph said the deal will expand MikMak’s reach to include more than 3,000 retailers across 20 industries and 80 countries. 

Tipograph began building MikMak eight years ago. And while heavily focused on North America, the platform works with global, blue-chip brands providing ecommerce analytics software across major media channels, from Meta and TikTok to programmatic and CTV. “We work with over 600 brands. And these are behemoth brands like P&G, Unilever, Hershey, Kraft, Anheuser-Busch, etc. In the U.S., we’ve had over 1,500 retailers in the ecosystem,” Tipograph told Adweek.

Tipograph said the Swaven acquisition will accelerate the company’s capabilities globally.

“If you look at Amazon, [they have an] extremely global footprint. Sephora is aggressively making moves into India. Then you have Alibaba—these players are becoming more global, and these big brands really want to be able to understand this customer and this channel and to have real-time learning,” she said.

Bringing transparency to retail media

Tipograph also sees an opportunity to correct what she identifies as a problem for advertisers; a lack of transparency in retail media due to a highly fragmented environment in which media channels and retailers have been “grading their own homework.” She notes the new iteration will provide brands with an omnichannel view of their consumers.  

“We will be able to provide analytics across every major media channel,” she said, adding it’s a “huge win for the ecosystem to have third parties—whether its MikMak or someone else—that verifies the measurement of what’s happening.”

Swaven’s co-founder and CEO, Laurent Quatrefages, echoed Tipograph’s sentiment and sees the union as a perfect fit. 

“MikMak is the ideal partner to take our advanced technology platform to the next level,” said Quatrefages in a company statement. “Our combined expertise and innovative solutions make us the most agile global player in our industry. We can, in a single platform, address the challenges brands face in operating and adjusting their digital and retail mix.”   

“Our customers are already benefiting from the combination of our companies with a ready-to-use platform,” added Sébastien Thiberge, Swaven’s co-founder and COO. “We are honored to have a partner who shares our ambitions to accelerate growth and revolutionize the industry with disruptive digital technologies.”  

According to the statement, the combined entity will now service a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of $2.4 trillion with an increased foothold in the EMEA, APAC and LATAM markets, and “solidifies the company’s place in the Commerce-Marketing industry with a Total Addressable Market (TAM) valued at $120 billion.”

MikMak 3.0

When Tipograph—a GAP veteran—founded MikMak eight years ago, the use of video content by brands and retailers was an untapped opportunity. Today, brands like Kraft have now adopted the platform’s tech to create an in-house operation churning out content and learnings in real time, resulting in exponential growth for the global brand. 

“The DNA has been deeply rooted in social and video,” said Tipograph. MikMak has a patent on the technology in the U.S. that allows for the ability to instantiate ‘at-Cart’ sessions in video. “And what this is [going to] accelerate us to do is not only live across every single media channel and brand website but also bring our technology to the media impression level. We’re picking up on inventory in real-time.”

In addition to inventory data and other key reporting, brands will also be able to use the enhanced tech to forecast revenue and streamline onboarding to optimize self-serve capabilities, which Tipograph believes will be game-changing for small brands with lower head counts.  

“The smaller brands … they really can’t play in retail media right now. Retail media is designed for the big brands. And there’s very few self-serve capabilities outside of Amazon. So, this is [going to] open up the aperture for them in a big way.”