YouGov has said that it now expects its revenues for the current financial year to reach between £327-330m, while its operating profit is set to hit between £43m-46m.

The research and data analytics group said that this is an increase on its revised guidance in June.

YouGov said that in the year to 31 July, its research division saw "strong growth in custom research", offset in part by declines in data services as expected, leading in the division recording mid-single-digit growth on an underlying basis for the full year.

It added that it remains "well capitalised", with around £70m in cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet and £13.75m in untouched revolving credit.

The announcement comes as the firm confirmed the acquisition of New Zealand-based AI-tool firm, Yabble.

YouGov said this acquisition would see it use the firm’s technology to power "new and valuable insights for clients around the world".

It added that Yabble’s technology is "perfectly place to take advantage of the enormous growth in generative AI in the insights industry".

Chief executive officer at YouGov, Steve Hatch, said: "Generative AI is transforming the insight landscape and with the acquisition of Yabble, YouGov is strongly positioned to take advantage of this change. Early adopters of Yabble's pioneering technology include some of the most data-savvy brands.

"I have seen how powerful the combination of YouGov's data and Yabble's technology is, and I am excited for more clients to experience this. This acquisition will transform the way our clients derive insights from YouGov Profiles' two million datapoints and gain maximum value from YouGov's unique dataset.

“We have been building towards this acquisition over the past six months and we're excited to welcome Yabble's team of world leading prompt engineers, machine learning experts and data and analytics professionals to YouGov."

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