Unicast

About Unicast

Unacast operates as a location intelligence and human mobility data company, providing insights into how people move around the planet. The company was founded in 2015 by Thomas Walle and Kjartan Slette, who raised a seed round to begin the research and development phase. Walle, the CEO, previously held a leadership role in business development at the music streaming service TIDAL before its acquisition by Jay Z.

The company's core business revolves around its location insights platform, which collects, analyzes, and visualizes geospatial data from sources like GPS, mobile phones, and IoT sensors. This platform transforms raw human mobility data into actionable insights for organizations in both the public and private sectors. Unacast serves a diverse client base across verticals such as retail, market research, real estate, and city planning. Revenue is generated by providing these data-hungry clients with access to its analytics and insights. For instance, telecommunication companies can use Unacast's Turbine platform to anonymize user trace records and transform them into population behavioral patterns, creating new revenue opportunities.

Unacast's platform allows clients to analyze foot traffic, demographic shifts, and trade areas to inform strategic decisions like market expansion, marketing campaign measurement, and property investment validation. The company emphasizes its commitment to privacy by ensuring data is collected with consumer permission and complies with stringent privacy laws. Significant milestones in Unacast's history include raising $5 million in 2016, followed by a $17.5 million funding round in 2018 to launch its Data as a Service analytics products in the U.S. In 2021, the company secured another $16 million to expand into over 20 new countries. A key strategic move occurred in December 2023 when Unacast merged with Gravy Analytics, which expanded its product line and added global data coverage.