Leading app analytics company Sensor Tower acquires rival Data.ai in a move to consolidate the mobile intelligence industry, creating a powerhouse that can dominate the space and proactively provide competitive insights into the app economy is about to be established.
Sensor Tower and Data.ai help businesses and developers understand how their mobile apps are performing, providing estimates on downloads, active users, in-app revenue, traction in specific demographics, and competitive benchmarks. Masu.
Sensor Tower said these platforms, which cost over tens of thousands of dollars for standard services, are currently available as standalone products, and no additional consumer-focused changes are planned following the acquisition.
“We have long admired Data.ai's great products and high-quality team. With this acquisition, Sensor Tower will expand its audience and bring best-in-class products to any company participating in the digital economy. “We are now able to bridge the gap between businesses and consumers,” Oliver Yeh, CEO of Sensor Tower, said in a statement.
Sensor Tower did not disclose financial terms of the deal, but said Bain Capital and Riverwood Capital were providing credit-based financing. Separately, Paramark Ventures invested an undisclosed amount in Sensor Tower.
Chunsoo Kim, Paramark's managing partner, said the acquisition will have a major impact on the world of marketing that measures the digital economy.
“I'm particularly excited to support the team as it digs deeper into the dynamic Asia-Pacific market, where the digital economy is booming,” he said in a statement.
Both companies were each other's biggest rivals, although they also compete with other players such as SimilarWeb and AppFigures.
Company history
The deal is a surprise, at least in terms of who ended up buying it. According to Crunchbase, Data.ai has secured more than three times the funding compared to Sensor Tower. Data.ai raised over $157 million in various rounds, while Sensor Tower only raised $46 million.
A three-year regulatory fine may be the key.
In 2021, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged Data.ai with securities fraud. The company and its co-founder, former CEO and chairman, Bertrand Schmidt, have agreed to pay $10 million in settlement. The SEC accused the company of using “deceptive practices” to collect data.
Data.ai told app developers that their data is not shared directly with third parties. However, the SEC found that the company shared intelligence data with third parties from 2014 until mid-2018 without properly anonymizing the information.
Sensor Tower has also attracted considerable controversy as critics have questioned its data collection practices. In March 2020, BuzzFeed News published a report claiming that some VPN and ad blocking apps were secretly collecting data without exposing their connections to Sensor Tower. Sensor Tower apologized in 2020, saying the company took the path it took to remain competitive.
In September 2023, the company cut approximately 40 of its more than 270 staff, including executives in CMO and CFO positions.
Apple and Google have also made changes to their mobile operating systems in recent years, somewhat hampering the ability of companies like Sensor Tower and Data.ai to collect meaningful data.
Although both companies have encountered problematic situations, they continue to be extremely valuable to developers and companies looking to better understand user preferences. It's a little surprising, then, that both companies continue to be frequently cited in his TechCrunch, as well as publications such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, and The Verge.