JOURNEY ANNOUNCES ACQUISITION OF ICRAVE, SKILLED CREATIVE AND FUTURES INTELLIGENCE CREATING A LEADING INNOVATION AND DESIGN AGENCY

Former frog Design CEO, Andrew Zimmerman, Launches Journey to Help Top Brands Design, Build and Activate Next Generation Customer Experiences and Business Models

NEW YORK, May 24, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Journey, today announced its official launch with the acquisitions of three companies: ICRAVE, Futures Intelligence Group, and Skilled Creative– creating an award-winning team with capabilities across physical, digital, and virtual innovation. Backed by private equity firm Growth Catalyst Partners, Journey is led by CEO Andrew Zimmerman, former CEO of frog Design, the iconic innovation and design firm, and co-founder of Accenture Interactive and Mobility.

"Brands must embrace the rapid pace and diversity of technological innovation and understand what we call the customer journey's futurescape," said Andrew Zimmerman, CEO of Journey. "We support clients who are looking for a panoramic view beyond what we can see today, which spans across physical, voice, digital, and virtual touchpoints. The Futurescape is the "space" in which we imagine the next chapter in the customer journey and then build it." 

"The decision to join Journey was fueled by my passion for reinvention," said Lionel Ohayon, Chief Creative Officer at Journey. "From the introduction of iPads into the customer airport experience, to immersive digital and physical experiences in the world's largest nightclub, and integrating wearables into a leading cancer outpatient facility, we are all about creating next generation physical experiences enabled by emerging technologies."

"At Skilled Creative, we've been pushing the boundaries of how brands can leverage voice and conversational AI, creating new and innovative customer journeys," said Brandon Kaplan, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Journey. "As brands begin to traverse physical, digital, and virtual realities, conversational AI will be the leading user interface, and Journey will be leading that Voice UI charge."

Additionally, as Journey's chief metaverse officer, Cathy Hackl, popularly known as the godmother of the metaverse and metaverse Web3 authority, will bring her invaluable experience and understanding of Web3 future applications to Journey's services. Cathy Hackl commented: "Web3 and the metaverse will change the way consumers engage and interact with brands, creating new customer journeys and new custom touchpoints. Our digital lifestyles are catching up to our physical lives and Journey is here to help organizations break free from two dimensions into a fully 3D environment that encompasses virtual and physical worlds."

For more information about Journey, please visit https://journey.world/

ABOUT JOURNEY
Journey, the agency of the futurescape, enables companies to navigate to their next chapter, designing, building and running immersive experiences, at speed and scale. Backed by Growth Catalyst Partners, Journey was founded in 2022 by Andrew Zimmerman, former CEO of frog Design, with co-founders Lionel Ohayon, CEO and founder of ICRAVE, Brandon Kaplan, CEO of Skilled Creative, Craig Ayers, former COO/CFO of frog Design, and Cathy Hackl, founder of Futures Intelligence Group. Customers include market-leading B2B and B2C clients including Clinique, Entertainment Weekly, HBO, JetBlue, Marquee Nightclub, STK, Warner Music Group, MomA, Procter & Gamble, Wall Street Journal, Sloan Kettering, and more.

ABOUT GROWTH CATALYST PARTNERS
Growth Catalyst Partners is a middle market private equity firm investing in information, marketing and tech-enabled services businesses. GCP's strategy involves targeting growth segments of industries and identifying and building market-leading companies with breakout potential. GCP partners with company founders and owners along with top executives within those industries and provides capital, proprietary deal origination and operating expertise to the management teams. GCP's team has deep sector expertise and has led hundreds of transactions and successful investments in services businesses for over 20 years. Since the firm's founding in 2015 GCP has completed over 65 acquisitions across its 12 industry-leading platform companies. For more information, visit www.growthcatalystpartners.com.

Media Contact:
Alain Rapallo
Virgo PR
[email protected]

SOURCE Journey