Sequoia-backed AdNear eyes US & Europe expansion through strategic partnerships

AdNear, a Big Data company which helps brands reach out to audiences by analysing location data over a period of time claims to have profiled over 160 million users through a direct presence in five markets including India, Australia, the US, Singapore and Indonesia. The company is now eyeing expansion to developed markets through strategic partnership.

According to Anil Mathews, founder and CEO of AdNear, the mobile advertising market is expected to cross $20 billion mark globally by the end of 2014. The company is now aiming to expand in newer markets like the US and parts of Europe through strategic partnerships. It will also look to raise new funding for the same. AdNear had earlier expanded to Australia through partnership with the country's leading ad network Adconion.

While Australia is their major market, India contributes only about 10 per cent to its total revenues. "India is an evolving market and the marketers are just starting to realise the power of this medium. Despite a sharp rise in smartphone penetration, the market is still developing for mobile advertising," Mathews said.

Last year, the company had moved its headquarters to Singapore. "The city is an ideal hub to service the Asia-Pacific region. APAC is an extremely fast growing market in the location-based advertising space and is expected to have a 32 per cent growth by 2018. It has helped AdNear to launch in almost all of the Southeast Asian countries," said Mathews.

"At the rate that we are growing, we will touch 500 million users by the year end. We grow at nearly 1.2 million new users every day, and have had close to 260 per cent user growth over the last six months," he added.

Claiming to be the only location-based audience targeting player in Asia Pacific, the firm is helping target audiences via mobile advertising. The company has about 100 clients globally including Nokia, Vodafone, Honda, Magnum, P&G, Titan, KFC, Airtel, Samsung, and Pizza Hut, among others.

AdNear was founded by Mathews back in 2009. The company's advertising platform is built on a proprietary hybrid geo-location platform, which helps provide location awareness on mobile phones without GPS or operator assistance. The company is servicing clients in India, Singapore, Australia and other Asia-Pacific countries. The company leverages real geo-location, combined with consumer behaviour, to target relevant users within a geo-fence.

As a result, advertisers are able to reach a massive audience, based on where people are located or what's actually near them. All ads are displayed within mobile apps and ensure further engagement as users can find their way to the advertised stores, use coupons, and call the businesses and so on. Presently, the company has a team of 40 employees across five countries.

In November 2012, it had raised Rs 35 crore ($6.3 million) in its Series A funding from Sequoia Capital and Canaan Partners to expand across the Asia-Pacific region and scale up its proprietary technology and data reservoir.