McDonald's Corp. said on Monday it would buy Israel's Dynamic Yield, whose technology helps marketers personalize customer interactions, to boost its online marketing efforts.
McDonald's will pay more than $300 million, a person familiar with the matter said.
McDonald's said it would use Dynamic Yield's technology to change its digital drive-thru menu displays to show food based on the time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items.
The deal comes as the world's biggest fast-food chain is still struggling in its home market, where it faces fierce competition from rival chains that have also been upping their games with promotional offers and increased investments in digital and delivery services.
"With this acquisition, we're expanding both our ability to increase the role technology and data will play in our future and the speed with which we'll be able to implement our vision of creating more personalized experiences for our customers," Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook said in a statement.
The company said it would roll out the technology at restaurants in the United States in 2019 and then expand the use to other top international markets.
McDonald's will start integrating the technology into all its digital offerings, such as self-order kiosks and McDonald's Global Mobile App.
Dynamic Yield was founded in 2011 by CEO Liad Agmon and CTO Omri Mendellevich and raised $32 million last August, bringing the total funds raised to a reported $83 million. The company has 200 employees, most of them in its Tel Aviv development center as well as development, sales and operations staff in its New York office.
"When Omri Mendellevich, our CTO, and I started Dynamic Yield seven years ago, the premise of what we were building was based on customer-centric organizations making individualized experiences and personalization a strategic priority," Agmon wrote on the company website. "Our acquisition by McDonald's, one of the most iconic and beloved brands of our time, is truly an endorsement of that vision as they have chosen Dynamic Yield to help power personalization across their 37,000 restaurants in 120+ markets around the world."
