In a deal that ‘bodes well’ for local investors, Center City’s Sidecar has been acquired by Quartile

Performance marketing company Sidecar, a mainstay in the Philly tech scene since its launch nearly a decade ago, has been acquired by New York-based Quartile, the company announced Monday.

Five-year-old ad optimization platform Quartile specializes in ecommerce marketplace sellers, and Sidecar CEO Andre Golsorkhi said that the deal — for which details were not disclosed — allows the companies for form one “high-growth organization focused on creating the largest ecommerce marketing platform in the industry.” Both companies currently use machine learning and natural-language processing to bring data-driven strategies to their clients.

The companies will operate under the Quartile name in a newly combined organization, and Sidecar’s nearly 200 employees will join with Quartile’s team for a headcount of about 300, with plans for growth, Golsorkhi said. Quartile CEO Daniel Knijnik will remain chief executive while Sidecar’s Golsorkhi will become its president.

In an email, Golsorkhi told Technical.ly the company’s new headquarters is in New York, but it maintains its Center City office. They’ll continue to have a distributed workforce, with a mix of remote, in-office and hybrid work. Golsorkhi added that they are “equally merging” Sidecar’s and Quartile’s teams and technologies.

“By combining Sidecar’s best-in-class solution and expertise managing campaigns for DTC e-commerce merchants with our proprietary AI-driven analytics and optimization platform, we will create the most comprehensive and powerful e-commerce suite,” Knijnik said in a statement. “The two companies’ complementary businesses, products and relationships will offer unrivaled benefits for our combined customers, employees and other stakeholders across a diverse set of markets.”

CEO Andre Golsorkhi and former COO Steve Tutelman at Sidecar Q in 2016. (Courtesy photo)

Sidecar had grown quickly in the years leading up to the acquisition, reaching nearly 200 employees, and raising $33.5 million in venture capital to date. The company was one of the first to receive funding from Ben Franklin Technology Partners’ Global Opportunity Philadelphia Fund — aka the GO Philly Fund — back in 2019.

BFTP President and CEO Scott Nissenbaum told Technical.ly the deal is a huge indicator of what’s happening in the tech industry in Philadelphia.

“It was part of our first deal with the GO Philly Fund as a follow-on, and I know as part of acquisition, they will continue to grow here,” Nissenbaum said. “It bodes well for us and local investors. They’re growing here, and building here. We lose too many companies when they get to Sidecar’s stage of growth so this is great news for them and for Philadelphia.”

Golsorkhi said the deal felt like the right fit because the company has complementary strengths with Quartile, and they share a similar vision for the future and for solving problems ecommerce marketers face.

“We jointly recognize that our customers require technological and human-led solutions to capture demand within and across all the channels where consumers shop today and into the future,” Golsorkhi said. “Our integration is virtually organic. For all those reasons, we believe this move is the right fit, an incredible outcome, and an exciting new chapter, for our shareholders, team members, and most important, our customers.”