Product discovery and reviews platform, Influenster, has been acquired by Bazaarvoice, a Texas-based technology solution that connects user generated-content including reviews, questions and answers, and social photos across over 6,000 global brand and retailer websites. Through the acquisition, Bazaarvoice will gain access to Influenster’s 6 million-member community, allowing both companies to build relationships with new and existing customers, create a comprehensive product reviews and UGC strategy, and power word-of-mouth marketing at scale. Aydin Acar and Elizabeth Scherle, who co-founded Influenster in 2010, will retain responsibility for key functions at the company, and the current staff will remain intact and continue to operate from its NYC headquarters.

“Since launching Influenster almost 10 years ago, we’ve stayed true to our vision to better connect consumers and brands. Our platform has grown significantly since then, with 38 million product reviews written by our community of nearly 6 million shoppers. And now, we’re becoming part of Bazaarvoice, a company that shares our mission and will enable us to further scale offerings for members and brand partners,” said Elizabeth. “Even with the acquisition, we’re still the same company our community and clients know and love. We’ll continue to offer existing services like VoxBox hyper-targeted sampling and ReviewSource content licensing. But the opportunities for growth are tremendous! We’re excited to build additional app features, explore global expansion, and create new capabilities that help brands win in word-of-mouth marketing.”

Joe Davis, CEO of Bazaarvoice, said, “Influenster’s product sampling and review generation offerings further strengthen our core product ratings and reviews solutions, and their hyper-targeting and gamification capabilities will allow us to better support our customers’ broader marketing initiatives. We’re excited to partner with a company that shares our belief in the power of the everyday consumer.”

Integrated offerings will be available in North America immediately and in Europe in the fall of 2019, before expanding to other regions in 2020.