Near

Near is a privately held ambient intelligence platform founded in Nov 2012 having direct presence in Australia, Japan, South East Asia, India, Europe, and United States. Near is headquartered in Singapore.

History

Near was founded as AdNear^[1] in Bangalore by Anil Mathews,^[2][3] who continues to serve as the CEO of the company. In its early days, the Near Platform used data from mobile towers and wifi networks to determine a person's location. With the large scale adoption of GPS-enabled smart phones and devices, the current platform processes GPS-based location data as well. The Near Platform utilizing location-indexed data was launched in November 2012. In 2013, the company moved its headquarters from Bangalore to Singapore.^[4] The company has received funding from venture capital firms Sequoia Capital,^[5]JP Morgan Private Equity Group,^[6] Telstra Ventures and Global Brain Corporation to date.^[7] It raised $6.5 million in Series A funding and the $19 million raised in its 2014 Series B fundraising was the most raised by any company that year.^[8][9] In Fall 2015, the company changed its name from "AdNear" to "Near" to highlight its mission of building a scalable ambient-intelligence platform to power the next generation of location-aware products and services.^[10][11] In July 2017, Near expanded its operations in the US with the opening of the New York office.^[12]

Near Platform

The Near Platform has experienced continuous growth and adoption since its inception. Platform users have included seven of the eleven largest automobile companies using the platform, as well as additional Fortune 100 companies.^[13] growth is tracked in terms of mobile audience profiles and number of places of interest (POIs). The platform has grown from nearly 100 million profiles in early 2014 to currently having over 1 billion profiled users across the globe. Furthermore, Near has nearly 65 million plus points of interest and region descriptions across markets in APAC, Japan, Europe and US making it one of the most powerful platforms. More than 300 global brands use Near to get intelligence about their consumers, and act on it.^[14] Use cases of ambient intelligence include mapping consumer journey, audience curation, omni-channel marketing, retail analytics, market research, CRM Onboarding, OOH analytics, Offline attribution measurement, macro-economic urban planning and others.

Recognitions

The utility, relevance and business impact of Near’s platform and products has been recognized internationally. Listed below are awards of note:

• In May 20, 2014, Near won top Mobile Startup Award at TiE50, Silicon Valley.^[15]
• In May 2015, Near was recognized as a 2015 Cool Vendor in Consumer Dynamics by Gartner.^[16]
• In January 2016, Near was recognized as one of the top 4 players in the location-enabled platform market by Technavio.^[17]
• In May 2016, Near was recognized as one of top 5 players in the global location-based search and advertising market by Technavio.^[18]
• In June 2016, Near was featured as a location intelligence provider with spatial capabilities in the Vendor Landscape report by Forrester.^[19]
• In August 2016, Near was featured as one of the niche vendors in the BI platforms and Analytics Software space by Gartner.^[20]
• In October 2016, Near won the 2016 Frost & Sullivan Location-based Intelligence Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award.^[21]
• In May 2017, Allspark, Near's SaaS audience product won the IAB Digital Product of the Year Award.^[22][23]

References

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