Quantiphi Acquires its Way Into the U.K. AI Market

Quantiphi, a Massachusetts-based AI engineering company, has acquired Candyspace, a London-based digital product agency, the companies announced March 9.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The deal marks only Quantiphi's second acquisition since the company was founded in 2013, and its first outside North America.

Candyspace works with ITV, Rolls-Royce, Mazda, The Royal Mint and MS Now, among others, across media, automotive, manufacturing and financial services.

Prior to the acquisition, Quantiphi's U.K. presence consisted of a registered entity, Quantiphi Limited, incorporated in Reading, England in April 2020.

What Quantiphi is buying into

The U.K. is the third-largest AI market globally, behind only the United States and China. According to IMARC Group, the market was valued at $3.3 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach $20.5 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 22.56%.

Candyspace brings 20 years of digital product design and engineering to the deal. The agency delivered ITVX, ITV's streaming platform, across mobile and Apple TV, with the service reaching 1 billion streams in its first four months. It also increased lead conversions on Mazda's U.K. website by 46% through an ongoing optimization program.

Quantiphi specializes in generative, conversational and agentic AI, computer vision and natural language understanding.

In a LinkedIn post announcing the deal, Quantiphi co-founder Ritesh Patel said: "AI is moving from powering systems in the background to becoming the interface itself. As enterprises move toward AI-native applications and agent-driven experiences, the intersection of intelligence and design becomes more important than ever."

The acquisition also brings a leadership transition at Candyspace. Co-founders Tom Thorne and Martin Brierley are departing following the close of the deal.

In a LinkedIn post, Thorne described AI as "the largest technological reset of our generation" and said leading in the new era "requires global scale, depth, and world-class AI capability." Matt Simpson, Candyspace's managing director, will lead the business going forward alongside Adam Davey, Jonathan Kelly and Nicolas Mendoza.

Candyspace had itself been expanding before the deal, acquiring e-commerce design agency Profound in July 2024. The Candyspace deal follows a partnership Quantiphi signed with Qatar Free Zones Authority in May 2024 to establish a technology hub there, and its acquisition of U.S. HealthTech firm Accreon in May 2022. Candyspace will continue to operate under its own name as a Quantiphi company. TH Global Capital advised Quantiphi on the transaction.