General Atlantic leads $210 mn round in SaaS startup AppsFlyer

SaaS (software-as-a-services) mobile marketing analytics and attribution platform AppsFlyer has raised $210 million in a growth round led by New York-based private equity firm General Atlantic.

Existing investors, including Israel-based venture capital firm Qumra Capital, Goldman Sachs Growth, private equity firm Deutsche Telekom Capital Partners, and venture capital firms Pitango Venture Capital and Magma Venture Partners, participated in the round, the New York-based company said in a statement.

With the latest infusion, the company has raised $294 million in total funding to date, bringing in $56 million in a Series C round led by Qumra Capital and existing investors in January 2017.

AppsFlyer will use the fresh funds to strengthen its open platform for partners and third-party developers, and expand the APAC presence, including the India market, the statement said. “This new round enables us to double down on our mission to empower marketers with the tools needed to catapult their success and make accurate, better-informed strategic decisions...,” Oren Kaniel, CEO and co-founder, AppsFlyer, said.

Founded in 2011 by Kaniel and Reshef Mann, AppsFlyer helps marketers grow their business and innovate with a suite of comprehensive measurement and analytics solutions. It said it has over 12,000 customers, including Grab, Agoda, Tokopedia, SEA Group (Shopee & Garena), HBO, Tencent and Nike.

AppsFlyer also said that General Atlantic’s managing director Alex Crisses, and co-president and global head of technology Anton Levy will join AppsFlyer’s board of directors.

“We are excited to partner with a company that has an experienced team and a culture focused on the customer. Attribution is becoming the core of the marketing tech stack and AppsFlyer has established itself as a leader in this fast-growing category...,” Crisses said.

AppsFlyer claims that its team has grown four times to 850 employees in 18 global offices since the past funding round. In 2020, it opened its seventh Asia Pacific office in Jakarta, Indonesia. In India, it has operations in Bengaluru. India also constitutes one of its more important markets in the region.

“AppsFlyer’s scale enables it to provide accurate attribution data and ad-fraud protection, saving millions for advertisers. At the same time, the company has the end-user in mind every step of the way. As data privacy becomes one of the primary concerns facing brands, we are energised to partner with a technology leader that has a mindset of privacy by design and security first,” Levy said.

Established in 1980, General Atlantic is a global growth equity firm providing capital and strategic support for growth companies. It has over 150 investment professionals based in New York, Amsterdam, Beijing, Greenwich, Hong Kong, Jakarta, London, Mexico City, Mumbai, Munich, Palo Alto, São Paulo, Shanghai and Singapore. The firm has $35 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2019.