Dept acquires Rocket Insights to further fuel its expansion into the U.S. market

Dept, the leading digital agency in Europe has acquired the U.S.-based Rocket Insights to further fuel its expansion into the U.S. market. The acquisition will further fuel Dept’s global expansion with new offices in Boston and Brooklyn, led by the Rocket Insights team. Additionally, the acquisition signals a powerful merger of Dept’s digital transformation services with Rocket’s product development expertise.

With over 1000 experienced team members, the Amsterdam, Holland-based agency combines creativity, technology, and data to help reinvent and accelerate digital reality by creating experiences for customers around the world.

Founded in 2015, Rocket Insights was built to bring a fresh approach to product design and development, specializing in the entire design and development lifecycle. Having spent years at product companies, the Rocket team started the type of agency they always wanted to hire: one that fully aligns with clients and accelerates their business.

“We were determined to keep Rocket independent. That is until we met Dept,” said Jesse Streb, Partner at Rocket Insights. “Dept has had rapid growth across Europe, an incredible depth of data, creativity and technology services and a ‘cool’ factor that we admire. Adding our product expertise to Dept’s one-stop shop strategy is a real opportunity to create a new kind of agency for our clients. We’re thrilled to call the Dept team colleagues and friends.”

Rocket has an extensive track record of delivering innovative products and services to clients like Foundation Medicine and Fox and was responsible for the award-winning Virgin Pulse Apple Watch app.

“We fell in love with the Rocket team,” said Dimi Albers, Dept’s Chief Executive Officer. “From our shared love for creative problem solving, to our relentless focus on improving our client’s business. We’ve got to know them as a group of incredibly talented designers and techies who can very rapidly take an idea and bring it to life and know how to make software useful, beautiful and seamless. We truly believe that this is the spirit we’re looking for when building the bridge for our clients between Europe and the US.”

Since it launched in 2016, Dept has speedily grown across the globe and works with brands such as Tesla, Adidas, Samsung, Triumph Motorcycles, Philips and Panasonic. Currently, Dept employs a team of over 1200 people operating out of eleven countries in Europe and the USA, with a revenue of over 135 million USD.

In order to service the growing international client portfolio, Dept is ramping up investment and expansion in the US. Last November, its current US operation in Boston has been bolstered by Dept-owned agency factor-a (market leaders in Amazon Marketing), opening an office in New York.

The official announcement is planned for March 12th at SXSW at the New Dutch Wave house. Both Dept and Rocket Insights are going to host a presentation titled, “Why all brands need a new type of agency to survive in this millennial age,” at 4pm CST followed by a round of drinks from 5-7pm. For more information and RSVP, check the official SXSW schedule.