For better or worse, location data is still a fundamental component of app development. TechCrunch has uncovered that Placer.ai, a business creating AI market research using that location data, has secretly secured $75 million at an increased valuation of about $1.5 billion.
By merging AI with anonymised data that it receives from third-party apps, the startup offers a wide range of location-based insights to businesses in verticals like retail, events and entertainment, CPG, retail estate, financial services, and healthcare.
The investment was initially disclosed to us in a July Form D that Placer filed, outlining its plans to raise $75 million. The CEO and CFO of the company have verified to us that the deal has completed in full, with a new valuation of $1.45 billion—a nearly 50% increase above the round’s previous valuation of $1 billion, which was a $100 million Series C.
The investment demonstrates how location data is becoming increasingly valuable to companies other than the app providers. It also serves as a reminder of the sheer amount of data we generate in our day-to-day lives, at a time when more people are becoming conscious of data protection around mobile apps, partly because of an increasing number of data breaches.
Placer’s analytics include broad patterns like as foot traffic for a certain shop or location – interesting facts like Aldi’s current status as the fastest-growing retailer based on visits — as well as more specific information about who buys what and when, demographic profiles of individuals, and other information.
As some have observed, these techniques are a little unsettling, but they are also not wholly unusual. (Others that monitor location data include Esri, Foursquare, and numerous other companies that provide location analytics.)
Similar to other mobile analytics companies, the startup obtains data from various third-party sources and through an SDK it installs with hundreds of app publishers. It calls itself a “privacy by design” company: According to the company, all of the data it utilizes is anonymised before being sent to Placer.
The business only revealed that current backers took part in the most recent fundraising effort; it declined to reveal who else contributed. The real estate investment company GEM Realty Capital is included in this most recent round as well, according to PitchBook.
Placer’s cap table now has over fifty investors, both individuals and businesses. Along with J.M. Schapiro, the CEO of Continental Realty Corp., Eliot Bencuya and Jeff Karsh of Tryperion Partners, Daniel Klein of Klein Enterprises/Sundeck Capital, and Majestic Realty, these include Josh Buckley, the former CEO of Product Hunt, WndrCo, Jeffrey Katzenberg’s investment firm, Lachy Groom, MMC Technology Ventures, Fifth Wall Ventures, and Array Ventures.
The company has had good financial results. Placer has grown 80% over the past year and anticipates growing another 60% this year, according to CEO and co-founder Noam Ben-Zvi, who spoke with TechCrunch about the company’s crossing of the $100 million annual revenue run rate in February. Additionally, it has 4,300 clients (compared to 1,000 in 2022, the year it raised the $100 million). Sony, Wegmans, Century 21 and other municipal development groups are on the list.
“Having a stake in the physical world is what unites them all,” he stated.
According to CFO Dean Nese, the money was raised in response to external interest. The money will be used for platform expansion, commercial development, and the addition of new features and datasets. It claims to have “hundreds” of these datasets available to users already.
Placer was established in 2018 by Ben-Zvi, along with fellow Israelis Zohar Bar-Yehuda (data scientist), Oded Fossfeld (CTO), and Ofir Lemel (CPO). Two years later, the company faced the COVID-19 pandemic and the global shift away from in-person events—events that one might assume would spell the end for a location analytics startup. As it happened, the reverse was true.
“Our data provided a lot of visibility into what was working and what was not working,” Ben-Zvi noted at a particularly limited time.
With that consumer base under its belt, the corporation was able to grow when the globe “reopened” for business.
While Placer has always built increasingly complete profiles using inference and machine learning based on data gleaned from apps, this has also proven to be a selling point for its end customers, who have been given permission to investigate how to incorporate more AI into their operations.
“Patients seek a comprehensive, one-stop platform for market research,” he declared. They could wonder: Should I enter this market? What is the state of play for my rivals? All of the pertinent underlying data as well as all of the aggregations and tools on top are what they desire. Analytics is a fundamental component.