By Riley Kaminer
Do you ever walk by a restaurant or store in Miami and wonder, “what’s up with that place?” Maybe it’s a huge location that’s always empty or a hole in the wall that is always at max capacity.
If, so you’re not the only one. In fact, this is a particularly big deal for businesses that want to gain market insights, including into their competitors.
“Company 10-Ks are always six months late, so it’s hard to know if a company, for example, Starbucks, what their open or close rates are,” Dataplor founder and CEO Geoffrey Michener told TechCrunch.
“Other companies also want to know if one of their competitors closed or what the other businesses around there [are] so they can see if they can put a location there. We are trying to empower their decision-making.”
Boca Raton-based Dataplor has developed a platform to provide what it calls “global location intelligence” – insights into what business is happening where. And the scale is massive: they have location data covering more than 300 million point of interest records from 15,000 brands across 200 countries.
Dataplor, which was founded in 2016, already has traction, having more than doubled revenue every year since 2020 on top of being profitable. To further accelerate this growth, Dataplor has raised a $10.6 million Series A. Spark Capital led the round alongside fellow participants Quest Venture Partners, Acronym Venture Capital, Circadian Ventures, Two Lanterns Venture Partners and APA Venture Partners. Including this round, Dataplor has raised a total of $20.3 million.
“Estimates show bad data costs the market nearly $7 trillion annually,” Michener said in a blog post announcing the raise. “Many providers claim to offer comprehensive global coverage but lack the expertise and verification measures to deliver highly accurate datasets. This problem is particularly pronounced in developing countries, where up to 70% to 90% of international location data contains inaccuracies.”
Part of that accuracy comes from the Dataplor team’s so-called “Explorers,” the 100,000 humans who validate all the data. “Our unique approach ensures that our datasets are highly accurate, complete, and continually updated in real time,” Michener added. “We count dozens of Fortune 500 brands among our customer base, and we envision this funding carrying our work to new heights.”
According to Michener, this funding will be used to invest in new tech (including artificial intelligence-powered systems) that will enable their Explorers to work more quickly and effectively – all with privacy in the forefront. “In an era where data privacy is increasingly under the spotlight, we believe it is not only possible but essential to collect and utilize data responsibly.”
“With this new funding, we’re poised to explore new frontiers, tackle bigger challenges, and deliver even greater value to our customers,” Michener asserted. “We’re thrilled about the new opportunities ahead.”
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