Adrian J Cotterill, Editor-in-Chief
xAd, Inc. this week announced that it has acquired WeatherBug (a division of Earth Networks), including its mobile and web properties: WeatherBug mobile, desktop and iWatch apps, WeatherBug.com, and WeatherBug connected TV assets AND on the heels of this news, the company closed its series E funding of USD 42.5 million. The financing is led by Eminence Capital and joined by W Capital and existing investors IVP and Emergence Capital.
We are told that the acquisition will bring together the scale of xAd’s global, real-world intelligence and contextual database with WeatherBug’s daily user reach and engagement and a data infrastructure built from one of the largest IoT networks, across ten thousand private weather stations (five times larger than the National Weather Services’ collection). The deal will expand xAd’s mobile user visibility to 50 million users – who have opted in to share their location data many times a day, allowing each technology platform to become richer, more intuitive and accurate.
In addition, xAd will now be able to build deeper data sets to predict patterns and trends for more useful insights that marketers can turn into valuable experiences for consumers. This enhanced data set will also allow businesses to better plan for user behaviors brought on by the real-time nature of weather and other location factors.
xAd CEO Dipanshu “D” Sharma said “The power of our data gives businesses the fundamental ability to understand and serve their audiences better. We are driving the future of artificial intelligence by combining data sets that can not only capture the most accurate consumer behavior but also predict where they will go next.”
According to eMarketer, checking the weather is one of the top three most popular activities on US smartphones. This underscores the cultural expectation for on-demand information that is not only accurate but relevant to a consumer’s location and experience. Weather has also been shown to have an immediate and measurable impact on sales, especially for retailers and other consumer businesses.
The press release stressed that this latest round of funding will accelerate xAd’s commitment to help the world better understand and apply this fast-growth and emerging technology to communities in critical times of need, not just helping businesses improve sales.
To support the growth and increased scale of the business, the company has appointed industry veteran Serge Matta as President of Global Sales and Marketing at xAd. Former comScore CEO, Mr. Matta lends decades of marketing and analytics industry expertise to the fast-growing location intelligence category.
WeatherBug, headquartered in Germantown, MD., with over 20 million unique users per month and an average time on site of 25 minutes, provides the most accurate IoT sensor data through more than ten thousand private weather stations. The WeatherBug app is a top rated weather app – rated #2 in the iOS app store – and one of the top 10 weather apps for Android devices.
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