Amplitude Buys A/B Testing Disrupter ClearBrain

In the US, product intelligence specialist Amplitude has acquired predictive analytics firm ClearBrain, for an undisclosed sum.

Amplitude uses behavioural analytics to turn trillions of user actions into insights on product performance. Its venture backing includes a $15m Series B round in 2016, but the acquisition is its first. ClearBrain's technology will give its customers the chance to predict instantly which features, campaigns and product bets are most likely to drive revenue growth without extensive A/B testing, as its machine learning platform simulates thousands of such tests simultaneously. The buy also brings in the product and engineering team that developed it - former engineers from Optimizely and Google Ads - who join Amplitude's machine learning division, to be led by ClearBrain founder and CEO Bilal Mahmood.

Amplitude CEO Spenser Skates (pictured) comments: 'Our customers use product intelligence to iterate quickly on big bets, and they need instant clarity on what features their users are coming back to use and which campaigns drive the most engagement - that's why predictive analytics matters. Most predictive analytics solutions offered to companies today, however, are misleading and dangerous to rely on because they present correlation as causation. What the ClearBrain team has developed is years ahead of the market. They have built a self-serve, machine learning platform that provides predictive insights with clear causation out of the box'. Mahmood says the opportunity to bring predictive analytics to thousands of Amplitude's customers is 'an amazing proposition' for his team.

Web sites: www.amplitude.com and www.clearbrain.com .