GenAI, the hottest AI today, generates images, emails, songs, and more in record time, arguably making work less painful. But in the long run, one of the more useful applications of AI may be identifying counterintuitive correlations that humans miss. For example, consider that people who like horror movies are more likely to try certain exotic cuisines, while people who like sitcoms are more likely to listen to true crime podcasts.
New York-based startup Qloo is on a mission to apply AI to understand these nuanced preferences and cultural patterns. Founded in 2012 by Alex Elias and Jay Alger, Qloo aims to uncover consumer behaviors and trends across entertainment, fashion, travel, sports, food and other sectors.
Elias, a graduate of New York University School of Law, said he was inspired to found Qloo after noticing a gap in the market for what he calls “taste knowledge.”
“As an avid defender of culture, I play tenor saxophone and piano, and deeply appreciate mid-century films. I have seen a fragmented world of hobbyist knowledge,” he says. He said this in an interview with TechCrunch. “While companies like Spotify, Expedia, and Netflix have built data silos to dominate their respective fields, they can understand the preferences of diverse individuals across different domains without relying on identity-based data. We realized there was a lack of a predictable, integrated system.”
So Elias teamed up with Alrger, who previously led digital marketing agency Deepend, to launch Qloo.
Image credits: Qloo
Qloo currently provides businesses with AI-generated correlated data across many culture and entertainment sectors, including movies, travel, nightlife, and literature. The platform's knowledge of your preferences in one category or genre can be used to provide suggestions in other categories. For example, you can apply TV favorites to game purchase behavior.
“Qloo operates a sophisticated AI-powered insights engine comprised of behavioral data from consumers around the world,” Elias said. “Qloo’s proprietary AI models can identify trillions of connections between these entities. Our technology has a deep understanding of consumer behavior for over 575 million businesses around the world. It enables contextual personalization and deep insight into the complex connections behind people's preferences.”
Now, Qloo is dealing with a large amount of personal data. This certainly gave this writer pause. Where does it all come from and where is it stored? Although Elias did not specify, Qloo does not rely on personally identifiable information and is subject to privacy laws such as GDPR and the California Consumer Privacy Act. It quickly claimed that it complied with the requirements of
“Qloo “We maintain a comprehensive ethics policy that prioritizes ethical, transparent, and responsible AI development and deployment, as well as data privacy and security,” he said. “Specializing in data and privacy, Qloo We maintain the highest standards of data privacy and security and do not utilize any form of personally identifiable information or copyrighted information in our modeling pipeline. ”
Whether that's true or not, Elias maintains that key customers are adopting Qloo to enhance their product experience. For example, Starbucks uses Qloo to create in-store music playlists tailored to specific regions. Hershey's leverages this platform to customize the contents of its various candy bags. Michelin uses Qloo to provide recommendations in the Michelin Guide app. Netflix is also using Qloo's technology to enhance its merchandising by identifying actors who resonate with specific demographics.
These customers and approximately 60 other Qloo customers, spanning PepsiCo, Samsung, the New York Mets, Buzzfeed, and Ticketmaster, are helping make the Qloo approach profitable. The company makes money by charging a monthly subscription fee to access its platform through its API. Contracts start in “five figures,” Elias said.
Image credits: Qloo
Today, Qloo sets its sights on expansion after raising $25 million in Series C round led by AI Ventures with participation from AXA Venture Partners, Eldridge, and Moderne Ventures (bringing Qloo’s total funding to $60 million) are combined. In addition to building a self-service research tool aimed at marketers and small business customers, the startup is building a “multi-person recommendation” tool that can match any two profiles in Qloo's database. We are introducing something called AI. Based on their preferences. Elias noticed it being used on dating apps.
“The tailwinds from privacy and AI have significantly outpaced the headwinds from the technology slowdown,” Elias said. “Qloo has experienced extensive engagement expansion from existing customer roles, consuming new data domains and realms of preference knowledge, as well as Qloo’s AI-powered generative itinerary planning and dynamic persona Qloo also aims to address new use cases, such as increased compliance requirements, demand from new addressable markets such as real estate, and an overall acceleration of sales cycles. I'm watching it.”
With the new capital, Qloo plans to expand its team of 50 to more than 100 by the end of the year and “pursue opportunistic M&A.” In 2019, Qloo acquired entertainment recommendation engine TasteDive, and Elias hinted that future acquisitions will be along similar strategic lines.