There’s a world outside of app stores and it’s App Annie’s goal to help developers capitalize on it.
On Tuesday, the app analytics company announced $55 million in Series D funding and launched a tool that analyzes the usage data around popular apps, including active users (daily, weekly and monthly), the number of sessions, time spent, frequency of use and retention. The tool is a complement to an audience intelligence product released in early December, which collects consumption habits and demographic data.
The latest round of funding for App Annie, which has about 300 employees in 10 offices across the US, Asia, Europe and Russia, was led by new investor Institutional Venture Partners with financial pinch-hitting from Sequoia Capital, Greycroft Partners and IDG Capital Partners, all of which have been involved in previous App Annie funding events.
The new cash brings total funding for the company, whose client list includes Universal Studios, BMW, Google, Microsoft, Zynga and EA, to $94 million since 2011.
Brands and developers have both been asking for better data around usage and demographic information, said App Annie CEO and co-founder Bertrand Schmitt.
It’s about life-cycle metrics rather than a dogged obsession with the initial install.
“These data points help to drive key decisions, like where and how to target in-app advertising or what features are important to develop,” Schmitt said.
But it’s not just about monitoring your own app. Developers needs to keep an eye on the competition – everything from how much a competitor’s users are are worth to what kind of penetration those apps have in other countries.
Global markets have been top-of-mind for App Annie as of late. The company plans to spend a portion of its $55 million on accelerating the rollout of its existing product line in more countries around the world.
“Our revenue is global,” said Marcos Sanchez, App Annie’s VP of worldwide communications. “Countries like Japan, China, Korea, for example – there’s a lot of money there.”
The company will also use the cash on product development and to fund potential M&A activity, although Sanchez declined to go into specifics other than to say that it’s all part of App Annie’s overall vision to become a unified dashboard for app publishers on their quest to acquire users and keep them.
“We will invest in connecting data from every area that is mission critical for app professionals,” said Schmitt, pointing to App Annie’s recent investments in its intelligence suite. “The investment behind these initiatives is significant.”
In terms of a road map, the company is also looking to spend on upgrades to its web dashboard, as well as analytics visualization tools for its user base of roughly 350,000 mobile marketers and developers.
