The Singapore and Bengaluru-based startup Near, which was initially called AdNear, used location data to serve customer-relevant ads. Eight years on, Near, founded by Anil Mathews in 2012, has emerged as a #SaaS (software-as-a-service) startup, which collects real-life data about consumers and merges it with online data to create their profile. Near has raised over $134 million from marquee investors like Sequoia Capital.
Near gathers data from a diverse set of data partners such as data aggregators, app partners, Wi-Fi partners, public hotspots, census data sets, and regional data partners across markets. It then takes the raw, unfiltered, and unstructured data signals and puts it into context by adding a layer of data science on it. Near’s customers can then understand the behaviour of users not just based on the places they are visiting, but the behaviour they exhibit in the real world. At present, Near has clients like Mastercard, WeWork, and Boston Consulting Group (BCG). It has taken the startup close to seven years to expand globally to reach the $1.6 billion scale.
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How data analytics startup Near went from adtech to become a SaaS company
In today's digital era, marketers are collecting massive amounts of data from consumers through the internet. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Google have a lot of data about people, and companies are on a constant chase to capture user data to promote their products. However, not many companies have the data from the physical world.
