NZ-founded market research platform Ideally has raised $13.4m in an investment round valuing the company at more than $83m. The funding will support the company\u2019s expansion into the US and the launch of new product Ideally Canvas.<\/p>\n
Ideally, the market research platform used by Doordash, Telstra, Google and Asahi, has raised AUD $13.4m in Series A funding as it looks to replace the slow, expensive, inaccessible model that has defined the industry for decades with a platform that turns consumer data into the fuel for faster, braver creative decisions.<\/p>\n
The round, led by Shearwater Capital with support from Altered Capital, Icehouse Ventures and Ecliptic VC, sees the startup valued at over AUD $83m.<\/p>\n
Ideally gives marketing teams real consumer insight overnight, for a fraction of the cost of a traditional research project, without compromising on quality. The platform is built on real consumer data, with AI sharpening both the questions asked and the analysis that follows.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we started Ideally, we saw an industry that needed fixing. Market research hasn\u2019t kept pace with the modern marketer, and brands are drowning in data but starved of insight they can actually use,\u201d said James Donald, CEO of Ideally.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo we built something different: real human insight, fast enough to fuel creativity, accessible enough for every team doing the work. When insight moves at the pace of creativity, braver ideas get made and better work follows. Our goal is to put real consumer understanding at the heart of every decision, and with our new partners behind us, we\u2019re ready to take that to every market that needs it.\u201d<\/p>\n
More than 250 brands across APAC and the US use Ideally to discover where opportunity exists in their category, test and validate ideas early, and make faster decisions across the product and marketing lifecycle.<\/p>\n
\u201cIdeally has changed how our marketing team walks into a room. In a field where everyone has an opinion, it gives us the evidence to back our instincts and move with confidence,\u201d said Lauren Nikolareas, Bupa Australia\u2019s Head of Marketing, Digital Health.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve used it across pricing, proposition and creative concept testing, and shaping how we bring ideas to market. It\u2019s fast, intuitive, and it brings the customer into conversations where they simply weren\u2019t before. You can\u2019t argue with evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
Expansion into the US, building on APAC growth<\/p>\n
The investment will accelerate Ideally\u2019s US expansion. The company opened a New York office in early 2026 and has since grown US revenue by 350%, with customers including Duckhorn, Tilray and R\u00e9my Cointreau.<\/p>\n
Zac Zavos, Managing Partner at Shearwater Capital, pointed to the product\u2019s impact as the driver behind the investment. \u201cIdeally has taken what was a long, expensive, waterfall research process and rebuilt it as something fast, iterative, and accessible. Once marketers experience the speed of overnight responses, it becomes indispensable.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat impresses us most is how every aspect of this business has been built around customer delight, and the pace at which they\u2019ve scaled revenue, customers, and team since inception reflects that. They\u2019re moving fast and building the category as they go.\u201d<\/p>\n
New product: Ideally Canvas<\/p>\n
For decades, brands have relied on one-off research studies that take weeks to deliver and quickly become outdated as consumer behaviour shifts. That means insights often arrive too late to shape ideas, and are instead used to validate work that is already in motion.<\/p>\n
Alongside the raise, Ideally is launching Ideally Canvas, a new product that gives brands a living, continuously updated picture of their consumer rather than a static snapshot.<\/p>\n
Ideally Canvas is designed to bring consumer, category, and competitor understanding into the earliest stage of the creative process. Every study feeds a compounding dataset that builds over time, helping teams understand what consumers want more of, what is missing in their category, and which creative directions are likely to resonate.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumer sentiment moves in dog years these days. The biggest risk in marketing is making a bold call based on who your customer was half a year ago, let alone 18 months ago. Better decisions come from understanding how people are thinking, feeling and behaving right now, not relying on yesterday\u2019s assumptions,\u201d Donald added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NZ-founded market research platform Ideally has raised $13.4m in an investment round valuing the company at more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,146904,300806,160675],"class_list":["post-620331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-ideally","tag-james-donald","tag-market-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}