GoKart Labs has served hundreds of clients in the healthcare, financial services, and education industries since it was founded in 2009 by Don Smithmier and A.J. Meyer. Its rapid growth earned the company places on the Inc. 5000 list, the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Fast 50, and Minne Inno 50 on Fire. Today it was announced that they would be joining West Monroe Partners. With the acquisition, West Monroe will double their presence in Minneapolis, where the firm has operated since 2013.
Combined with West Monroe, the firm will go after a slice of the estimated $1.2 trillion enterprises are spending annually on digital transformation technology, according to IDC.
For GoKart Labs team members joining West Monroe, that means helping clients’ businesses transform their operations to embrace digital, and building scalable technology platforms. The firm will also create new digital products and experiences for clients’ customers and employees.
“GoKart Labs’ ability to invent, design, and build custom digital experiences for industry-leading companies particularly aligns well with a large part of West Monroe’s client base,” said Tom Ewers, managing director and leader of West Monroe’s Minneapolis office. “West Monroe has also found a great company, with strong alignment on culture values, as well as extraordinary creative talent. I couldn’t be happier that it’s in Minneapolis.”
“In West Monroe, we found a company that shares our values and entrepreneurial spirit, while also bringing a huge array of complementary skills to help scale the important work we do for category-leading clients,” said co-founder and CEO of GoKart Labs, Don Smithmier.
Smithmier will join West Monroe as a senior director on the digital team. “This gives our team immediate access to a national brand presence and 1,400 colleagues with deep industry knowledge and end-to-end digital skills, all of which will significantly amplify results for clients and present new opportunities for our people.”
Co-founder A.J. Meyer will also join West Monroe as an Innovation Fellow, a new role focused on innovation to address emerging market issues and support clients in developing market-leading strategies.
The GoKart Labs brand will officially sunset at the end of this year, though the studio will continue to be based out of Minneapolis, serving clients nationally as West Monroe builds out additional studios in other offices.
