Today, Vancouver-based media company Black and White Zebra (BWZ), announced the acquisition of London, UK-based SaaS lead-generation company Crozdesk, with its newly launched vendor platform SoftwareSelect. The acquisition will see BWZ acquire its lead generation technology for SaaS companies and enable them to further provide more comprehensive software recommendations for its users.
BWZ is the parent company for a number of major online publications that aim to provide people with the knowledge and tools they need to succeed professionally. BWZ achieves millions of unique website visitors per month, and generates millions of leads every year for SaaS companies including Monday.com, ClickUp and Smartsheet.
“Since launching over a decade ago, BWZ has helped millions of people and organisations through compelling content that includes in-depth how-to guides, training courses, and member forums that help people succeed at work,” comments Ben Aston, Founder & CEO, BWZ. “We are passionate about connecting people with the right tools and technology, and offer compelling content for our readers that is also highly optimised for our advertising partners. This acquisition transforms our business from a significant media publisher to an advanced media tech business, and we have a significant opportunity ahead.”
Existing partners across BWZ’s lead gen and training solutions include: Monday.com, ClickUp, Smartsheet, Lyft, Siemens, Oracle and Adobe. The business is cash flow positive and continues to experience significant growth in terms of both readership, and new enterprise partnerships.
“Combining BWZ’s reach, scale, and engaging content with our digital lead generation solutions used by more than 13,000 software vendors makes this an exciting opportunity for both businesses,” comments Nicholas Hopper, Founder & CEO of Crozdesk. “We have the ability to provide deep insights to enterprise buyer behaviour, and provide our partners with invaluable data for sales, marketing and customer success.”
Crozdesk has run lead generation, PPC and intent data campaigns for over 500 software vendors over the last three years, and uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to rank more than 13,000 software products across over 350 categories. The company’s Machine Learning engines categorise and assess vendor products for suitability across its platform, and it runs a network of dozens of online publishers across the software industry, extending its reach across its intent data and lead generation products.
BWZ publications include: The Digital Project Manager, The Product Manager, The Ecomm Manager, QA Lead, People Managing People, Behavioural Collective, CX Lead, and Indie Media Club.