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Factual funding, valuation and investors
Neutral location-data platform for POI, audiences, and measurement—merged into Foursquare in 2020.
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Funding, valuation & investors
Answer-first snapshotLatest funding
Series B
$35M · December 2015
Latest known valuation
Not publicly disclosed
Total disclosed equity funding
$35M
Excludes debt, grants, acquisitions, secondaries, and IPO proceeds.
Current status
acquired
acquired · Los Angeles, California
Investors in latest funding
Other: Index Ventures , Upfront Ventures , Andreessen Horowitz
Latest tracked event: Merged with Foursquare (all-stock) (April 2020). It is shown separately because it is not counted as disclosed equity funding.
Overview
Factual, founded in 2009 by Gil Elbaz in Los Angeles, built a neutral location-data business around points of interest, place intelligence, audience segments, and campaign measurement. Its data powered mapping products—including Apple Maps partnerships—and ad-tech stacks that needed verified place and visitation signals outside the Google/Facebook duopoly. Before merging with Foursquare in April 2020, Factual raised about $104 million from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Index Ventures, and Upfront Ventures. The all-stock merger combined Factual's audience and POI strengths with Foursquare's attribution and developer tools; Elbaz joined Foursquare's executive team and board while David Shim remained CEO of the combined Foursquare Labs.
Why Factual is interesting
Gil Elbaz sold Applied Semantics to Google, then built Factual as an independent location layer for Apple Maps and ad measurement—Foursquare merged with it to combine audience data (#1 at Factual) with attribution (#1 at Foursquare).
Product & use cases
Factual sold location intelligence: curated POI databases, audience segments built from mobile signals, and tools for marketers to measure whether ads drove store visits. The pitch was independent, privacy-conscious location data for brands that did not want to depend solely on walled-garden platforms.
- Audience targeting based on real-world visitation patterns
- Offline attribution tying digital ad exposure to store visits
- POI and place data feeds for maps, apps, and analytics products
Key facts
- Raised ~$104M total before 2020 merger; last major round $35M Series B (TechCrunch)
- Merged with Foursquare Apr 2020 in all-stock deal; combined revenue cited at ~$150M (Search Engine Land)
- Data spanned 105M+ POIs across 190 countries and 500M+ devices (Foursquare blog)
- Founder Gil Elbaz previously sold Applied Semantics to Google, basis for AdSense (WSJ)
Funding history (newest first)
Merged with Foursquare (all-stock)
2020-04 Not disclosedInvestors in our directory
Funds linked from Factual's profile — open a fund page for stage focus and related deal articles.
Competitive landscape
Edge: Factual positioned itself as a trusted neutral data provider with broad global POI coverage and strong audience segments—CEO David Shim later acknowledged Factual led Foursquare on audience quality pre-merger.
Factual competed in a consolidating location-data market against Foursquare, SafeGraph, and platform incumbents. Elbaz argued the industry needed an independent player so marketers were not locked into Google or Facebook data. The 2020 merger with Foursquare created a ~$150M-revenue combined business spanning audiences, POI, attribution, and developer APIs—reducing direct rivalry between the two leaders.
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Foursquare direct
Rival location-data provider that ultimately merged with Factual; combined entity kept Foursquare brand with complementary attribution vs. audience strengths.
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SafeGraph adjacent
Also sold POI and foot-traffic datasets to analysts and marketers; different go-to-market but overlapping buyer set.
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Google / Meta incumbent
Walled-garden location and identity graphs; Factual's independence pitch targeted buyers wary of duopoly dependence.
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Placed (Snap) adjacent
Store-visit measurement specialist acquired by Snap, then sold to Foursquare—consolidation removed a standalone competitor.
Notable stories
- Gil Elbaz left Google in 2007 specifically because he worried a few platforms would hoard location and identity data—Factual was built as the counterweight (AdExchanger).
- Foursquare CEO David Shim publicly said Factual was "No. 1" on audience segments while Foursquare led on attribution—a rare pre-merger admission of relative strengths (WSJ).
- Elbaz made a personal investment into the merged Foursquare entity beyond the all-stock merger structure (Search Engine Land).
Industries
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