Deloitte boosts digital services with Market Gravity acquisition

Founded in 2009 and headquartered in London, with additional operations in New York, Toronto, and Edinburgh, Market Gravity helps the world’s leading brands to create and launch innovative products and services.

The consultancy works in a variety of sectors, ranging from energy and retail to financial services and automotive.

Market Gravity’s seven-strong studio in Edinburgh, which is based in Leith and consists of venture leaders from a range of backgrounds, will become part of Deloitte’s consulting business from the start of June.

The consultancy’s founding partners, Gideon Hyde and Peter Sayburn, will also join Deloitte as partners and continue to lead the team operating under the Market Gravity brand.

Market Gravity’s innovation and customer-led design skills, combined with Deloitte’s capacity for large scale digital transformation, will enable clients to reinvent their businesses for the future.

The two firms have collaborated in Scotland previously, working together on the development of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank’s innovative new banking service, B.

The acquisition comes shortly after Deloitte announced the continued expansion of its Digital Studio in Scotland’s capital, as well as the opening of its Greenhouse facility – a centre of excellence for the firm’s clients to rapidly prototype new products and services. The Edinburgh studio is Deloitte’s third in the UK, after London and Belfast, and is supported by around 2,000 specialists across the country, in addition to a global network of over 38,000 professionals.

Rich Hurley, technology consulting partner at Deloitte, said: “Having already collaborated on a range of projects in the past, Deloitte and Market Gravity have a proven ability to work together. The team at Market Gravity have a unique combination of insight, commercial and design skills that give clients confidence to take a big idea and launch it to market – much quicker than previously possible. Their addition to our existing team will complement and enhance our growing digital offering in Scotland, as we continue to build this side of the firm.”

Nick Sherrard, MD at Market Gravity in Edinburgh, added: “In the two years since we opened our Edinburgh base, we’ve had a huge impact in re-imagining the way some of the country’s leading companies think about the future. By joining forces with Deloitte we can now help clients build that future too. We know the Deloitte team well because we’ve worked with them before, not least on the development of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank Group’s B, so we’ll hit the ground running from day one.”

Richard Houston, UK and North West European managing partner for consulting at Deloitte, commented: “Today’s acquisition is an exciting announcement for the continued growth of Deloitte’s consulting business. The Market Gravity team will help boost our creative consulting services and position us as a true market leader in helping clients create and launch innovative products and services. In an age of rapid technological change and disruption, together we can help clients innovate and succeed in the digital era.”