This week, MMW learned that Databerries — a performance-based mobile advertising platform for offline retailers — is announcing a $16 million Series A round, led by Index Ventures.
“The round comes after a Seed Round in December 2015, and includes existing investors ISAI and Mosaic Ventures, along with prestigious Angels such as Pascal Gauthier (ex-COO at Criteo) and Greg Coleman (President at Buzzfeed and ex-President at Criteo),” a provided statement explains.
Co-founded in 2014 by Benoit Grouchko (CEO, ex-Criteo), François Wyss (COO, ex-Google) and Guillaume Charhon (CTO & serial entrepreneur), Databerries “enables brick and mortar retailers to use mobile ads to target consumers based on previously visited locations and determine which ads have resulted in store visits.”
This concept pioneered by Databerries and referred to as Real Life Targeting, brings, for the first time, the sophistication of online advertising to offline retailers.
We’re told that since launching in December 2015, Databerries now works with more than 100 brick and mortar retailers, such as Toys “R” Us and McDonalds and has driven several million euros of revenue in its first year. The company has grown headcount from 4 to 40 in 12 months, with 40 percent of that growth in R&D.
“Retailers spend more than $100B every year in offline marketing (leaflets, radio, out-of-home, advertising, etc), without being able to accurately measure its efficiency. However, thanks to mobile devices, there is now a bridge between online and offline,” said Benoit Grouchko, CEO of DataBerries. “Databerries offers retailers a traffic acquisition solution that works for offline marketing, but also leverages the online advertising standards the industry has become used to: accurate targeting, personalization, performance measurement and return on investment optimization. As a result, Databerries is leveling the playing field between pure ecommerce and brick and mortar.”
