SPINS, a Chicago company that sells data, insights and commerce tools to consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands and retailers, acquired MikMak, a New York startup that measures and steers online shopping traffic for brands. The deal was announced on January 14, 2026. Terms were not disclosed.
MikMak's software sits between a brand's advertising and the retailers that sell its products. When a shopper clicks an ad or a "where to buy" button, MikMak routes them to a retailer and records what happens next. SPINS said the acquisition would speed up its plan to measure how shoppers engage with brands across physical stores, websites and the AI shopping agents that now answer questions and place orders.
MikMak's website now describes the business as "a SPINS Company", and the announcement named Rachel Tipograph as its founder and chief executive. The deal came shortly before the release of MikMak 4.0, a new version of the platform.
What MikMak built
Tipograph started MikMak in 2014. Pulse 2.0 reported that it began as a "QVC for Snapchat", selling products through short videos, and changed its business model in 2017. It became a tool that gives offline brands real-time information about sales activity on online retailers such as Amazon, Target and Walmart. Pulse 2.0 named Colgate, Dreyer's and Hershey's among its customers in 2020.
Today MikMak sells three product lines. MikMak Commerce covers shoppable media, a "where to buy" tool and a commerce API. MikMak Insights offers e-commerce benchmarks and pricing intelligence. MikMak Aura forecasts demand and measures which marketing spend produced extra sales. The company works with brands in grocery and CPG as well as beauty, alcohol, personal care and consumer electronics.
AdExchanger reported that all of MikMak's customers are large enterprise CPG brands. The trade publication also noted a gap in the product: MikMak did not have its own data on whether a product was in stock at nearby stores, or on whether an online campaign led to sales in a physical store.
“In SPINS, we found a team that thinks the way we do, and shares our relentless focus on helping customers keep pace with the evolving commerce world.”
Why SPINS is buying
SPINS built its business on retail sales and product attribute data, with a focus on natural, wellness and health products. It runs three platforms, called SPINS Foundry, SPINS Intelligence and SPINS Journey. According to AdExchanger, its direct retail relationships are mostly with regional and smaller grocery chains, and it competes with Circana, the company formed by the merger of IRI and NCSolutions.
The deal fills the gap on each side. SPINS gets a media and conversion platform for the large brands MikMak serves, and MikMak gets the in-store data it lacked. SPINS chief executive Jay Margolis told AdExchanger that the two companies had first discussed a partnership in 2025. He said marketers want online campaign results placed next to in-store sales, sales lift and market share, rather than looked at alone.
Margolis also said SPINS's own marketing product, Destini, which includes ad serving, had competed with MikMak only at the margins. AdExchanger reported that Destini customers will become MikMak customers. Tipograph told the publication that SPINS "has a proprietary data asset that we always wish we had", and that retailers now deal with both the sales and the marketing teams at brands, which do not want to work with separate vendors.
The founder and the funding
MikMak raised about $14 million before the sale, according to Pulse 2.0. The largest round was a $10 million Series A in August 2020, led by Wavecrest Growth Partners. Existing backers Luminari Capital and Brave Ventures took part, along with Lunch Partners, Madrona Venture Group and several angel investors. Wavecrest co-founder Deepak Sindwani joined MikMak's board.
At the time of that round, MikMak had about 60 employees and said it had been cash-flow positive since 2018. The current headcount was not reported.
Research Live's Daily Research News reported that BrightTower, a New York investment bank and M&A adviser, acted as exclusive financial adviser to MikMak and to Wavecrest Growth Partners on the sale.
What happens next
SPINS said the combined offer would give brands of all sizes a more detailed view of what consumers prefer and how they behave, both on the shelf and online, so they can direct marketing money more precisely. The company did not give a timeline for combining the products.
Neither company said whether MikMak would keep its brand or how its team would fit into SPINS. The deal adds MikMak to a market in which CPG data sellers, retail media networks and advertising technology firms are all trying to show brands which ads lead to sales. Margolis framed the purchase as a way to help SPINS customers plan, run and measure campaigns aimed at shoppers who now research products across many channels before they buy.
