data.ai (formerly App Annie)

data.ai (before App Annie) is a platform of the analysis of data about [mobile prilozheniya'mobilny applications]]. It combines everything you need for publishers and developers to help them understand the market requirements for creating, selling, and investing in mobile applications.

History

2022: Name change to data.ai

February 16, 2022 App Annie announced a name change to data.ai. Thanks to renaming, the company opens up great opportunities for the Unified Data AI corporate market.

The title reflects the company's vision of comprehensive digital performance capabilities realized through products and partnerships. data.ai combined consumer and market data to develop digital knowledge using the capabilities of artificial intelligence. This is the Unified Data AI principle.

According to PwC, 60% of executives call digital transformation the main driver of business development in 2022. However, the digital ecosystem remains fragmented and is too dependent on in-house IT resources, data quality, agencies, and manual processes. This greatly distracts the business from its core activities. Digital performance benefits from a single management system that combines disparate datasets, predicting critical metrics such as the cost of attracting customers, lifetime value, and return on investment. The goal of data.ai is to make the process of working with data as simple as possible with the help of universal presentation of data across all channels, as well as the capabilities of artificial intelligence.

data.ai also announced a partnership with Similarweb, which provides the first single database of the mobile and web applications market. Taking into account that data.ai relies on artificial intelligence to develop methodological recommendations for all digital channels - web, consoles, OTT services and streaming services - partnerships remain the main priority for the company in terms of providing additional data sets.

We see that there are unlimited opportunities to collect a wider range of digital data and activate artificial intelligence that will allow companies to compete at a higher level, "said Theodore Krantz, CEO data.ai. - We are proud to be a company offering special capabilities for intelligent data processing.

2021: $10 million fine for data fraud

The Securities USA and Exchange Commission (SEC) accused the American analytical company App Annie and its co-founder and former CEO Bertrand Schmitt of fraud with. data This became known on September 15, 2021. As part of the settlement of the dispute over "misleading and material misrepresentation information about how App Annie received alternative data," the company and Schmitt agreed to pay more than $10 million.

App Annie is one of the world's renowned mobile performance data sellers. The company sells data useful to developers, publishers, advertisers and marketing firms, including information on the number of application downloads, frequency of use, generated revenues, etc.

Trading companies call data of this type "alternative data" because they are not indicated in financial reports or other traditional data sources, the SEC explains. App Annie promised application developers not to disclose their data directly to third parties, but instead to use them as a source of aggregated and anonymized statistics. In particular, developers were promised to use the data exclusively to build a statistical model in order to evaluate application performance.

However, according to the SEC, from late 2014 to mid-2018, App Annie used non-aggregated and non-anonymized data to change estimates created from the statistical model in order to make them more valuable for sale to trading companies. According to the SEC, the company and its ex-CEO Schmitt lied to their customers about how these data were obtained. Customers were told that the data was obtained with the conscious consent of users, and the company has effective internal controls that prevent unauthorized use of confidential data and ensure compliance with US federal cybersecurity requirements. Trading companies made investment decisions based on this data, and App Annie even gave them advice on using estimates for trading before announcing earnings.

According to the SEC, App Annie and Schmitt violated the anti-fraud provisions of Section 10 (b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5. App Annie, without acknowledging but not denying the charges, agreed to execute the order to stop illegal activities and pay a fine of $10 million. At the same time, Schmitt is obliged to pay $300 thousand. In addition, he is forbidden to hold the position of director of a public company for three years^[1].

Since I took over as CEO, we have established a new level of trust and transparency in the newly created alternative data source market. The peculiarity of App Annie lies in the ability and readiness of the company to be the first to provide fresh unified data obtained using artificial intelligence technologies, "said Theodore Krantz, CEO, App Annie. - Many companies may knowingly use data that relies on confidential information from public companies without their explicit consent, which we believe could jeopardize companies using digital/mobile market data. We believe that the alternative data market needs regulation.

2016

Company Information

As of March 2016, over 500,000 registered users, who control 1 million mobile applications, relied on App Annie to understand the intricacies of the application market, their own business and the opportunities facing them. The company, whose main office is located in San Francisco, had more than 425 employees in 15 divisions around the world.

Thanks to App Annie, owners can not only get data on the use of their applications, but also track the activities of competitors and what is happening in the industry as a whole. Among the company's customers in 2015 are such companies as Electronic Arts, Google, LinkedIn, Line, Microsoft, Nexon, Nestle, Samsung, Tencent, Bandai Namco, Universal Studios, Dow Jones and many others. App Annie is a private international company whose main office is located in San Francisco.

As of March 2016, App Annie raised funds in the amount of $157 million with the participation of investors such as e. Ventures, Greenspring Associates, Greycroft Partners, IDG Capital Partners, Institutional Venture Partners и Sequoia Capital.

Takeover of American AppScotch

App Annie logo in 2015

On March 14, 2016, App Annie announced the expansion of its technology base through the acquisition of AppScotch, a prominent player in the application data market.

The acquisition of AppScotch, whose main office is in San Francisco, was the third in two years - after Dutch Distimo in 2014 and Canadian Mobidia in 2015. This deal, which followed the third round of financing, will allow App Annie to strengthen its position as the most reliable provider of data and analytical reports in the modern dynamic mobile application industry.

"Applications are changing the world, opening up incredible opportunities for ordinary people and commercial companies - both large and small. Our mission is to help companies make the most of these opportunities. We are constantly looking for new technologies and qualified specialists that will allow us to offer better products and services to our customers, "comments Bertrand Schmitt, CEO and co-founder of App Annie. - Guys from AppScotch share our love of applications and have developed amazing technologies that perfectly complement ours. Now App Annie is developing the next generation of innovative products that will become indispensable tools for our customers to plan the development of applications and create market strategies, and this acquisition is handy for us. "

App Annie products provide market data and track revenue, downloads, advertising metrics, statistics, and user engagement for all major applications. App Annie's new version of the Intelligence product family will add additional advertising metrics to help promotional professionals evaluate and optimize ad strategy and creative ideas. App Annie continues to make every effort to provide customers with more practical data that will help them take their application business to a new level.

Raising $63 million from a group of investors

The App Annie service announced in January 2016 the conclusion of a deal to raise financing in the amount of 63 million US dollars. The majority investor will be the investment fund Greenspring Associates. Also in the round are active investors - e. Ventures, Greycroft Partners, Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) и Sequoia Capital. App Annie plans to direct the raised capital to increase efficiency and develop a package of its industry-leading products, as well as use it to further expand its global operations aimed at meeting the growing needs of application publishers.

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