Insider Brief
- Ideally, an AI-powered market research platform used by Google, Revlon, and KFC, raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Shearwater Capital, valuing the company at over $59 million, alongside the U.S. launch of its new product Ideally Canvas.
- The platform replaces months-long traditional research by gathering real consumer responses overnight across 30-plus countries, with AI identifying patterns, segmenting audiences, and generating follow-up questions — while every survey feeds a living dataset that compounds over time to make subsequent tests progressively smarter.
- After strong growth in Australia and New Zealand with brands including DoorDash and Afterpay, Ideally is now entering the U.S. market with a new office, using fresh capital to support expansion and continued development of its AI-driven insights platform.
PRESS RELEASE — Ideally, an AI-powered market research platform used by Google, Asahi, Revlon, Omnicom and KFC, announced the U.S. launch of its new product, Ideally Canvas, alongside its $10 million Series A funding round. The product brings consumer insight into the earliest stage of the creative process, replacing months-long research with real feedback in under 24 hours.
Current market research modalities are slow, costly and siloed. Ideally addresses these problems by putting consumer insight in the hands of marketers, strategists, and creatives instead of solely trained researchers. The platform gathers responses from real consumers overnight across more than 30 countries and compiles them into a user-friendly dashboard, where AI identifies patterns, segments audiences, and generates smarter follow-up questions based on what consumers actually say, not synthetic personas.
Unlike point-in-time research tools, every survey on Ideally feeds a living dataset that compounds over time — connecting consumer attitudes, category dynamics, and real feedback in ways that make every subsequent test smarter than the last. By turning a months-long process into overnight results, Ideally allows teams to test ideas early, uncover opportunities, and make confident, data-driven decisions at a fraction of the cost of traditional research.
The company’s $10 million ($16M NZD) Series A funding round, led by Shearwater Capital with participation from Altered Capital, Icehouse Ventures and Ecliptic VC, values Ideally at more than $59 million ($100M NZD). The investment will support U.S. expansion and continued development of its AI-driven insights platform.
“The best creative work has always come from genuinely understanding real people, but that understanding has been locked behind months of waiting and six-figure budgets. That world is over,” said James Donald, CEO of Ideally. “The brands winning right now are the ones closest to their customers, and we built Ideally to give every team that closeness at the speed and scale that modern markets actually demand. Every test compounds on the last, every insight gets smarter — and every brand that joins the platform gets a genuine competitive advantage.”
After explosive growth in Australia and New Zealand, where Ideally has been a mainstay partner for DoorDash, Afterpay, Asahi, and Hanes, the company is bringing Ideally Canvas to the U.S. market for the first time. This launch coincides with the recent opening of a new office, led by Joshua Nu’u-Steele, Co-Founder & chief revenue officer of Ideally.
“Every marketing leader I talk to in the U.S. has the same problem: their insights team is stretched thin, their timelines are impossible, and they’re making million-dollar decisions on data that’s already six months old. That’s not a research problem, it’s a business problem,” said Nu’u-Steele. “Ideally is built for how modern teams actually work, and the U.S. market is more than ready for it. We’re giving brands a faster, more reliable way to understand their customers and act on it.”
For more information, visit www.goideally.com.
About Ideally
Ideally is the market research platform that puts real human insight into every creative and commercial decision. We’re reinventing research for modern marketing, putting real consumer understanding into the hands of every marketer, strategist, and insights leader who needs it. Our platform delivers fast, always-on insight to understand what customers want, where categories are heading, and how to test ideas, products, and campaigns before they hit the market. Real people. Real responses. At the speed modern brands need to move. More than 250 brands and agencies across the US, UK, and APAC — including Treasury Wine Estates, Burger King, Google, and Rémy Cointreau — trust Ideally to make better decisions, faster.
Contacts
Media contact
[email protected]
+61 455 715 782
