Crisp

About Crisp

Founded in 2005, Crisp is a provider of real-time, AI-driven risk intelligence that protects brands, assets and people from reputational damage, security threats and online harms. The company delivers real-time social media brand safety and crisis monitoring services to global brands, media publishers and social platforms, ensuring its customers are always first to know and first to act.

Crisp's market position is underpinned by leading artificial intelligence software combined with human moderation workflow technology trained over more than 15 years. By the time of exit, the platform discovered over one billion pieces of actor-originated digital chatter every week and protected more than $6.5 trillion of combined market capitalization across a blue-chip client base of over 1,000 brands — including Disney, Coca-Cola, the world's largest media and entertainment business, four of the top five luxury and fashion brands, and the world's largest pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in Leeds, U.K., Crisp operated offices in London, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.

Measurable Outcomes

Why Baird Capital Invested in Crisp

Back in 2018, online brand safety had become a board-level priority for global brands, and Crisp sat at the center of a fast-growing market underpinned by powerful secular tailwinds. We were attracted to the business for several reasons:

• Crisp was a differentiated provider in a fast-growing market, validated by its 50+ global blue-chip customers.
• The business had a significant, largely untapped opportunity to build scale in the United States. At the time of our investment roughly 80% of Crisp’s revenue came from U.S.-headquartered customers despite not yet having a U.S.-based sales team.
• Compelling financial metrics: Crisp’s subscription model had greater than 100% net revenue retention, high growth, high gross margins from a technology-led delivery model and robust capital efficiency.
• The company’s experienced and committed management team had deep domain expertise.

Partnering with Crisp's Founders

Crisp saw the United States as its single biggest opportunity and was looking for a partner that could help it establish in the market and provide additional capital for the next stage of growth.

Baird Capital was selected over other U.S. and U.K. investors because of a combination few could match: our experienced, on-the-ground U.K. team complemented by significant resources in the U.S., alongside a shared culture and market understanding. Crisp sought a partner that was not only capable, but culturally aligned to the founders and their vision. Our alignment with those priorities set the stage for our partnership.

The Situation: How Baird Capital Supported Crisp

As a minority investor, our role was to provide support, resources and governance to professionalize the business and accelerate its growth. We executed against a clear value-creation plan spanning revenue generation, global growth, human capital, professionalization and exit positioning, working together to:

• Build out the leadership team with multiple senior hires, including a U.S. president, CMO, CRO, head of platforms, head of HR, head of finance and Chief Data Officer.
• Establish a permanent U.S. office in Chicago, which was originally led by a Baird Capital Operating Partner, and built out Crisp’s U.S. leadership and sales.
• Develop the sales playbook, introduce pricing specialists, and enhance Crisp's U.S. PR to build its public profile and brand awareness.
• Improve financial reporting and infrastructure, strengthen recruitment processes, and establish an advisory board through the Baird network.
• Support Crisp's transition from lower-value moderation services to higher-value risk intelligence.

During our hold period, Crisp evolved into a higher-value risk-intelligence business with greater scale, automation and professionalism across sales, marketing, customer success, technology, finance and legal. In June 2022, Baird Capital exited its position in Crisp to Kroll, the leading global risk advisory firm – a full realization that was a fitting, mutually gratifying capstone to our a 3.5-year partnership.