US-based location data company Factual has reportedly raised funds amounting to $42 million in a fresh funding round. The investors that participated in the round were Upfront Ventures, Felicis Ventures and others. This was a party round, without a lead investor.
The funds so raised by the company are being planned to be used in the growth beyond the United States, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region.
“It was easy, for one thing,” Gil Elbaz, founder and CEO said. “It didn’t take up a lot of time, I didn’t have to go look for a lead, I could focus my efforts on growing the business.”
The company is currently hiring fresh employees in Asia — starting with Chris Pattinson, a former Grapeshot executive who will lead Factual’s Asian headquarters in Singapore.
Founded in 2009 by Gil Elbaz, Factual provides location data to customers like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft.
“The opportunity is, the world is reinventing around AI and data science,” Gil Elbaz said. “The threat is that duopoly — Google, Facebook and perhaps add an Amazon. [Other] companies are looking for the right partners to augment their first-party data. That trend started in the U.S. and now it’s aggressively moving beyond.”
The funding of the company as of now totals $104 million. Apart from the geographical expansion, the company also plans to invest in sales and marketing and to move into new industries like out-of-home advertising and connected TV.
With this funding, the company seems to tough new heights and also grow and expand in every other aspect.