New York, N.Y.—Material Bank, the world’s largest marketplace for searching, sampling, and specifying architecture, design and construction materials, has acquired Amber Engine, a software development company with a mission to democratize the product information management (PIM) space. The acquisition will expand the services that Material Bank provides to its almost 500 brand partners, alleviating some of the design industry’s biggest pain points: the lack of standardized data, disorganization due to high SKU counts and the overall complexity of configuring materials and products, according to the company.
“Amber Engine offers best-in-class PIM technology, made even more powerful with its new next-gen PIM software,” said Material Bank’s founder and CEO, Adam I. Sandow. “We look forward to investing in Amber Engine’s technology and expanding its capabilities globally. We believe that we can bring substantial efficiencies to Material Bank’s brand partners by helping them to be the first to easily transform and simplify the complex task of product data management.”
According to the company, much in the way Material Bank has modernized and simplified searching and sampling for materials, Amber Engine aims to simplify the process of data management and complex datasets across the design industry, empowering brands with better data.
Amber Engine’s new next-gen PIM software was designed to serve the needs of companies ranging from small and midsize to very large. The software is built around workflows that streamline the delivery of product data from every source, allowing brands to scale more efficiently by easily preparing, optimizing and sharing product data from one centralized place. Companies will no longer have to endure painstaking manual data management to execute multi-channel e-commerce, resulting in faster time to market with data that is more accurate and better positioned for sales, the company said.
Founded by Jennifer Gilbert, Amber Engine was a member of the Rock Family of Companies, along with dozens of other companies like Rocket Mortgage, Rock Ventures and StockX. While the company is entering a new chapter with Material Bank, its commitment to “Every client. Every time. No exceptions. No excuses” remains in force, the company said. Amber Engine, based in Detroit, will remain a distinct platform within Material Bank, continuing to operate independently and led by its current managing director, Shah Shafi.
“We couldn’t be more excited about this acquisition,” Gilbert said. “Amber Engine is able to expand its mission to democratize PIM technology while simultaneously providing Material Bank new ways to more impactfully serve its customers. I’m proud that Amber Engine will build upon its deep support of the small-to-medium brands and manufacturers who serve as the backbone of the e-commerce industry, while expanding its footprint in the city of Detroit.”