New York-based Native, an on-demand marketplace raises $2.5 million round funding to fuel its global growth.
The funding round was led by Lavrock Ventures, alongside participation from Riverbend Capital.
Native enables global brands to task locals to collect any type of data they need on the ground nearly anywhere in the world, from pricing to store checks. Native operates in over 30 countries around the world with offices in New York, Washington DC, London, etc.
“We are changing the face of market research in over 35 countries and in more than 16 languages around the world,” said Matt McNabb, co-founder and CEO of Native, “and we’re psyched to be working with Daniel and the talented teams at Lavrock and Riverbend to accelerate that reality.”
The funding round comes at an important time in the market research industry, just as leading fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) brands increasingly rely more on emerging market opportunities, and the traditional providers of research are facing constraints on how far they can go and how fast they can move. Native is not bound by the same constraints, delivering the on-demand economy experience to market research most typically seen in consumer rideshare and food delivery applications.
Native monitored humanitarian conditions in embattled Syrian cities in real-time, or gauging the in-store presence of one of the world’s leading brands in Japan, their ability to serve up needle-moving data that matters is a game changer for multiple industries.
Prior to announcing this round, Native brought on senior hires from the global rideshare platform Uber to manage its global operations, as well as talent from PepsiCo and market research leader IRi to drive its work with global brands and from Orbital Insight to help drive its worth with the public sector. Native was also recently listed as one of the leading technology companies to watch in 2019 by Built In New York.
Traditional research companies rely on human-intensive consulting models that make gathering data cumbersome and expensive. By connecting organizations that have questions to locals who collect data that can answer them, Native is removing the middleman. With this model, market research, geospatial mapping, and ground-truthing for any industry becomes more direct, more feasible, and more affordable.