Family affair: Angus Reid-Rival Group merger shifts Canada's market research landscape

Two established players in the North American market research industry, Rival Group and Angus Reid Group (ARG), announced a merger that will create Canada’s largest independent market research company. The combined entity is expected to generate over $60 million in annual revenue and will operate across five major cities in Canada and the United States.

The new Rival Group will include Rival Technologies, Angus Reid Group, and Reach3 Insights, each maintaining its distinct brand identity under the unified corporate umbrella. Rival Technologies is known for its AI-driven mobile-first conversational research platform, while ARG brings decades of experience in insights consultancy and panel management. Reach3 Insights, a U.S.-based consultancy, specializes in mobile conversational research and will add further capabilities to the group.

The merger is also something of a family affair — Rival Group’s co-CEOs are Andrew and Jennifer Reid, children of Dr. Angus Reid. For those out of the loop, the elder Reid is something of an institution in market research and polling, and evidently, the name behind ARG.

Son Andrew Reid is also the founder of Vision Critical (now known as Alida), a software company that combines customer insight and feedback to help clients optimize their customers’ experiences. Sister Jennifer joined in 2003, three years after the company was founded, and remained as executive vice president for over nine years.

The family has worked together several times over the years, as Andrew told us when we spoke to him about how family has shaped his entrepreneurial journey. The ARG-Rival Group will bring the Reids back under one roof.

Dr. Angus Reid, who is set to take a strategic leadership role on Rival Group’s board, emphasized the importance of Canadian ownership and control over research tools and data.

“With ARG joining Rival Group, we’re building an organization that not only understands what Canadians think, but has the tools to ask, listen, and respond faster and better than anyone else in the market,” Reid said.

The merger aims to integrate three key components of modern market research: proprietary technology, quality research panels, and expert consulting. This combination is intended to deliver faster, clearer insights to clients facing increasingly complex business environments and tighter decision-making timelines.

“By owning our technology, our panels, and our consultancy, we’re uniquely positioned to offer clients a fully integrated experience ranging from agile data collection to high-impact strategic guidance,” said Jennifer Reid, co-CEO of Rival Group with responsibility for research, consulting and panels. “With complete control of the process and a unified team behind it, we can deliver sharper insights with more speed, consistency and accountability than anyone else in the research space.”

Rather than a consolidation with job cuts, the merger is positioned as a growth strategy. The group plans to expand its U.S. panel presence, deepen AI-driven insights, and open a London office within the next two years.

“Rival Technologies has been growing at over 40% year-over-year, driven by rapid advancements in AI and the introduction of intelligent agents into our platform,” said Andrew Reid, co-CEO of Rival Group with responsibility for Rival Technologies. “This merger sets the stage for powerful new offerings that directly connect our conversational technology to the Angus Reid market panels, and ensure that AI is the driving force in our company going forward.”

The merged Rival Group will have its headquarters in Vancouver with additional offices in Toronto, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and Los Angeles.

The deal is scheduled to close on May 30, 2025.