New Partnership Announcement

Dalhousie University Agri-Food Analytics Lab partners with Caddle for rapid consumer insights

HALIFAX, NS. (February 3, 2021) - Understanding the changing food trends in Canada requires access to rapid consumer insights, helping the agri-food industry explore, learn, and innovate.

Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab is pleased to announce a new partnership with Caddle, Canada’s largest mobile-first insights platform that rewards Canadians for sharing data and engaging with brands. This three-year partnership will ensure that the very latest of consumer food trends will inform the analytics lab and enable them to interpret trends in real time.

Caddle was founded in 2015, after a chance meeting with Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Ransom Hawley recognized the growing need in the Canadian marketplace to help brands make better decisions, faster. And with timely data, relevant to this market. Caddle works with the top brands in the country like PepsiCo, Nestlé, and Nielsen, providing rapid insights solutions at every stage of the consumer journey. Caddle was recently named a Metabridge Top 15 Canadian Scale Up, and featured in MacLean’s as one of the Top 50 Fastest Growing Startups in Canada.Caddle will provide a generous annual contribution of rapid insights, valued at $150,000, to Dalhousie University’s Agri-Food Analytics Lab and its Scientific Director Dr. Sylvain Charlebois over the next three years, covering a range of relevant food-related topics.

“We are excited to launch this partnership with Dalhousie and Dr. Sylvain Charlebois because they understand the need for regular and timely insights in Canada’s food space.” Said Ransom Hawley, President & CEO, Caddle. “We pride ourselves in being trusted by them to deliver these insights from the largest daily active panel in Canada, with speed and accuracy.”

The Agri-Food Analytics Lab (AAL) aims to understand the future of agri-food systems through analytics. The bilingual institute provides a global knowledge hub and space for sharing intelligence, research and learning on food security, agriculture, aquaculture, agri-business, and social aspects of food.

Each year, the AAL publishes a wide range of high-impact and highly accessible reports, including 12 studies on specific agri-food issues. These reports supplement each December's publication of Canada’s Food Price Report which is read by over 80 million each year.  

“Caddle has been an amazing company to work with so far. As a partner, they truly understand what we are trying to achieve as a Lab focused on the future of food.” says Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, Scientific Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab.

This exciting partnership was announced during an online public talk today: Rapid Consumer Insights: Shaping the Canadian Agri-Food System, where new research produced from the partnership was released.  The research reported on January, 2021, survey results from over 10,000 Canadians on food literacy.

About Caddle

Caddle is the largest mobile-first insights platform that rewards Canadian consumers for sharing data and engaging with brands. The Caddle data and insights marketplace is powered by the Caddle app, where consumers' sign-up and complete research activities like answering surveys, uploading receipts, and providing their opinion in exchange for cash-back rewards.

About Sylvain Charlebois, Scientific Director of AAL

Dr. Charlebois conducts research in the broad area of food distribution, security and safety. He has written four books and many peer-reviewed and scientific articles—over 500 during his career. His research has been featured in newspapers that include The Economist, New York Times, Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Globe & Mail, National Post and Toronto Star.

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For more information contact: 

Stephanie Rogers,
New Partnership AnnouncementManager of Communications, Dalhousie University Faculty of Agriculture
srogers@dal.ca

Sylvain Charlebois, Scientific Director, Agri-Food Analytics Lab
Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University
Sylvain.Charlebois@dal.ca
902-222-4142 (cell)

Ransom Hawley, Founder & CEO, Caddle
ransom@caddle.ca
905-321-5255 (cell)