Owler

About Owler

Owler operates as a community-driven business information and competitive intelligence platform, providing users with real-time data and insights. The company was founded in 2011 by Jim Fowler, Tim Harsch, and Rajan Madhavan. Fowler, who previously founded the business contact data company Jigsaw and sold it to Salesforce, brought his experience in pioneering crowdsourcing for B2B information to Owler. The team aimed to leverage a community of business professionals to gather and verify company data, addressing the challenge of finding accurate, up-to-date business information.

The platform is designed for a wide range of professionals, including sales teams, marketers, executives, and investors, who need to monitor competitors, track industry trends, and identify business opportunities. Owler's core service revolves around detailed company profiles, which include firmographic data like revenue estimates, employee counts, funding history, and acquisitions. A key aspect of its model is the crowdsourced data, with a community of over 5 million users contributing and validating information, which is then supplemented by AI and machine learning. This approach allows Owler to provide real-time updates and alerts on significant company events such as product launches or leadership changes.

Revenue is generated through a freemium model. A free "Community" membership offers basic access, while paid subscriptions like "Pro" and "Enterprise" unlock more advanced features. These premium tiers offer functionalities such as real-time alerts on over 15 trigger events, enhanced data filtering, and integrations with CRM and communication tools like Salesforce, HubSpot, and Slack. In June 2021, Owler was acquired by Meltwater, a global media intelligence company, for $24.5 million in cash and equity. This acquisition integrated Owler's crowdsourced business information with Meltwater's media monitoring and social analytics capabilities, aiming to create a more comprehensive data repository.