Location data platform Factual raises $42M

Factual announced this morning that it has raised $42 million in new funding.

The company launched in 2009 and now provides location data to customers like Amazon, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft. And it’s still adding new capabilities, like the ability for advertisers to measure whether their campaigns drove in-store visits.

Founder and CEO Gil Elbaz said that there’s now a big opportunity and a big threat around location data.

“The opportunity is, the world is reinventing around AI and data science,” he said. “The threat is that duopoly — Google, Facebook and perhaps add an Amazon. [Other] companies are looking for the right partners to augment their first-party data. That trend started in the U.S. and now it’s aggressively moving beyond.”

Factual raised the new funding, in large part, to fund that growth beyond the United States, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. Elbaz said that even without any local employees, the company saw revenue from the region triple last year, making it Factual’s fastest-growing geography.

Now, the company is hiring a team in Asia — starting with Chris Pattinson, a former Grapeshot executive who will lead Factual’s Asian headquarters in Singapore.

Factual has now raised $104 million in total funding. The new round comes from Upfront Ventures, Felicis Ventures and others. Elbaz explained that this was a party round, without a lead investor.

“It was easy, for one thing,” he said. “It didn’t take up a lot of time, I didn’t have to go look for a lead, I could focus my efforts on growing the business.”

In addition to geographic expansion, Elbaz said the money will allow Factual to invest in sales and marketing, and to move into new industries like out-of-home advertising and connected TV.