Foursquare
Foursquare is a New York-based location intelligence platform serving enterprise marketers, agencies, developers, and BI teams with omnichannel attribution, location-based audience targeting, POI data, and geospatial analytics covering 100M+ venues across 200+ countries.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount501–1,000
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Foursquare does
Foursquare is a New York-based location intelligence platform founded in 2009 that converts global location signals from 500M+ devices into visit data, audience segments, and attribution outcomes. Its technical stack is built on a proprietary Places dataset covering 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries, a Stop Detection algorithm that distinguishes real visits from GPS noise, and a Snap-to-Place model trained on 16B+ human-verified check-ins. The platform is organized into three product pillars: Marketing Solutions (Attribution, Audience, Proximity) for measuring omnichannel ad impact and activating location-based audiences; Developer Tools (Places API, Movement SDK, Map/Data/Campaign SDKs) for embedding location into mobile and web apps; and a Geospatial Intelligence Platform (Spatial Studio, Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop) for BI/data-science teams. Consumer assets include Swarm and Superlocal, which contribute check-in data back to the Places database.
Foursquare firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Foursquare
- Legal name
- Foursquare Labs, Inc.
- Website
- https://foursquare.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 501–1,000 employees
- Short description
- Foursquare is a New York-based location intelligence platform serving enterprise marketers, agencies, developers, and BI teams with omnichannel attribution, location-based audience targeting, POI data, and geospatial analytics covering 100M+ venues across 200+ countries.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Foursquare industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Location Intelligence Platform
- NAICS
- Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Surveying and Mapping (except Geophysical) Services (541370)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Geofencing, Proximity & Location-Based Engagement Platforms (BPAMANAJ)
- akta.pro secondary industry
- Geocoding, Search & Place Data Platforms (BPAMANAC)
Keywords
Where Foursquare is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Foursquare business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations
Revenue model
- API and Platform Licensing: Revenue from licensing location technology APIs (Places API, Movement SDK) and platform access (Spatial Workbench, Studio). Developers and enterprises pay for API usage and platform access.
- Attribution Measurement Services: Revenue from providing omnichannel attribution measurement services to brands and agencies. Charges for campaign measurement studies that connect ad exposure to store visits and sales outcomes.
- Audience and Proximity Targeting: Revenue from selling location-based audience segments and proximity targeting capabilities to marketers for campaign activation across DSPs and platforms.
- Places Data Licensing: Revenue from licensing the Places POI dataset to enterprises for use in their own applications, business intelligence, and competitive analysis.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free/Developer tier with limited API access |
| Subscription | Annual | Enterprise/Commercial tier |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Foursquare product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Foursquare is a location intelligence platform that provides marketers, developers, and data analysts with location-based technology, data, and measurement tools. Its core offerings include omnichannel attribution (connecting ad exposure to physical store visits), location-based audience targeting, real-time geofencing/proximity, a 100M+ global POI Places database, and geospatial analytics workspaces, all powered by proprietary stop-detection and Snap-to-Place algorithms trained on 16B+ human-verified check-ins.
Product overview
Foursquare is an industry-leading location intelligence platform offering a comprehensive portfolio of products organized around three core pillars: Marketing Solutions (Attribution, Audience, Proximity) for measuring and targeting consumers; Developer Tools (Places API, Movement SDK, Map SDK, Data SDK, Campaign SDK) for building location-aware applications; and Geospatial Analytics (Spatial Studio, Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop) for visualizing and analyzing location data. The platform is powered by proprietary technology built on 16B+ human-verified check-ins, covering 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries, with 9B+ monthly visits tracked from 500M+ devices. Foursquare serves enterprise marketers, agencies, developers, and data scientists through both self-service tools and managed services, with 550+ integrated partner platforms for data activation and measurement.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Foursquare Swarm: Consumer check-in and venue tracking app
- Superlocal
Products and services
- Attribution Omnichannel campaign attribution solution that measures whether advertising exposure caused consumers to visit physical locations, connecting digital ad spend to real-world foot traffic and sales outcomes for marketers, brands, and agencies.
- Audience Location-based audience targeting platform enabling marketers to reach consumers based on historical visit patterns, behavioral signals, and demographic data across 2,300+ pre-built segments, including 800+ purchase-based audiences.
- Proximity Real-time geofencing solution that enables advertisers to trigger ads when consumers enter defined geographic boundaries, supporting point-radius and polygon geofence shapes for precision targeting.
- Places (POI Data) Point-of-interest (POI) database covering 100M+ global venues across 200+ countries, providing rich venue details including chains, categories, attributes, and sub-venue geometry for location-aware applications and data licensing.
- Places API REST API providing real-time access to Foursquare's Places database, enabling developers to build applications that discover venues, retrieve venue details, and power location-aware user experiences.
- Movement SDK Mobile SDK for Android, iOS, and React Native providing stop detection, visit notifications, geofencing, and journey tracking for building personalized, location-driven app experiences.
- Spatial Studio Cloud-based geospatial workspace for mapping, advanced analytics, permissions management, and collaborative sharing, supporting CSV, JSON, GeoJSON, Shapefile, KML, and GPX formats and integration with cloud notebooks and BI tools.
- Spatial Workbench Self-service spatial analytics tool enabling business analysts to transform location data into actionable maps and insights with familiar tools and instant cloud scale.
- Spatial H3 Hub Geospatial feature enrichment tool using Uber's H3 hexagonal hierarchical spatial indexing system, designed to eliminate complexity of spatial data preparation for data scientists.
- Spatial Desktop Desktop geospatial computing platform enabling users to achieve instant query performance on multi-gigabyte datasets and real-time visualization rendering locally.
- Studio Data API REST API for managing Studio cloud assets including maps, datasets, and permissions for sharing and collaboration.
- Measurement API API for programmatic access to attribution measurement capabilities and campaign performance data.
- Business Listings Platform enabling businesses to manage their presence on Foursquare, update venue information, and connect with customers through verified business listings.
- Foursquare Swarm Consumer check-in application allowing users to track places they visit, compete with friends, and maintain a personal history of location check-ins.
- Superlocal Location-based discovery app helping users find and explore places, powered by Foursquare's location technology and venue data.
- Foursquare City Guide Mobile city guide application helping users discover restaurants, shops, and entertainment venues with personalized recommendations based on location.
Quantifiable outcome
- 500%+ ROI from location-based attribution according to Forrester study
- +7 more outcomes
Companies that use Foursquare
Customer profileNamed customers10 records
Segments7 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Foursquare technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration33 records
AI capability4 records
Feature10 records
Foursquare partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Twelve partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.
- RampminorFoursquare switched from Coupa to Ramp for spend management. Achieved 4x faster PO and invoice processing speed, increased spend under management from 60% to nearly 100%, and eliminated rogue contracts.
- GasBuddycoreGasBuddy partnered with Foursquare to measure campaign effectiveness for CPG brands. GasBuddy delivered ads to consumers and Foursquare Attribution measured visit lift. Campaign for leading energy drink achieved 29% behavioral visit lift.
- PinterestcorePinterest partnered with Foursquare Attribution to measure 7-Eleven Showcase ads campaign. Pinterest delivered ads to Gen Z audience while Foursquare tracked in-store visit lift. Achieved 60% lift among existing customers.
- RedditcoreReddit incorporated FSQ Audience segments in addition to its own targeting for QSR campaigns. Foursquare Attribution proved campaign effectiveness with 7.8% behavioral lift among FSQ audiences and $0.05 cost per visit.
- Vistar MediacoreProgrammatic DOOH partnership where Vistar Media utilized Foursquare Audience and Proximity targeting for Jack in the Box campaigns. Foursquare provided location data for audience segmentation and proximity targeting while Vistar handled DOOH activation. Campaign achieved 8.8% lift in foot traffic.
- HiltoncoreHilton uses Foursquare Places API in the Hilton Honors app Explore feature, providing personalized venue recommendations from local team members to guests.
- TripAdvisorcoreTripAdvisor uses Foursquare Pilgrim SDK for in-destination and social travel recommendations, powering their new socially assistive app experience.
- Condé Nast TravelercoreCondé Nast Traveler uses Foursquare's database of 105M+ places as a source for up-to-date venue information including addresses, hours, phone numbers, and amenities on their website.
- The Trade DeskcoreMajor DSP partner for programmatic activation of Foursquare Audience and Proximity segments. Enables advertisers to target location-based audiences through The Trade Desk platform.
- LiveRampcoreData onboarding platform partner enabling Foursquare audience segments to be activated across connected TV and other channels.
- AWScoreAWS is a technology integration partner, with Foursquare data accessible through AWS Marketplace and cloud infrastructure.
- SnowflakecoreSnowflake partnership enables Foursquare data to be accessed and integrated within Snowflake's data cloud platform for enterprise analytics.
Scale indicators12 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Foursquare competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Placer.ai: Placer.ai is a foot traffic analytics and location intelligence platform offering visit counts, trade area analysis, and competitive benchmarking using a panel-derived dataset — directly comparable to Foursquare's attribution and movement analytics.
- SafeGraph: SafeGraph licenses POI and foot traffic data for analytics and geospatial use cases, overlapping with Foursquare's Places dataset and movement analytics offerings.
- PlaceIQ: PlaceIQ operates a location data platform providing audience targeting, foot traffic measurement, and attribution, overlapping substantially with Foursquare's marketing solutions stack.
- Mapbox: Mapbox provides mapping and location platform APIs/SDKs for developers, including search and geocoding — directly comparable to Foursquare's Places API and Movement SDK on the developer side.
- GroundTruth: GroundTruth is a location-based marketing and advertising platform that uses observed location data for audience targeting, geofencing, and visit attribution — directly overlapping with Foursquare's Audience, Proximity, and Attribution products.
- Near: Near aggregates real-world location data globally (Allspark) for audience targeting and analytics, competing directly with Foursquare's Audience, Attribution, and Places products, particularly in APAC and EMEA markets.
- Radar: Radar offers a geofencing and location SDK plus location-based marketing infrastructure, directly competing with Foursquare's Movement SDK and Proximity/geofencing products among app developers.
Broad incumbents
- Esri: Esri is the dominant GIS/mapping platform serving enterprise and government spatial analytics — a broad incumbent whose ArcGIS platform overlaps with Foursquare's Spatial Studio and Workbench geospatial analytics stack.
- TomTom: TomTom supplies maps and location data APIs at global scale, including POI and geocoding offerings — a broad incumbent in the same location data ecosystem as Foursquare's Places business.
- Google Maps Platform: Google Maps Platform provides Places API, geocoding, and maps SDKs as part of Google Cloud — a broader incumbent whose developer location services overlap with Foursquare Places API at scale.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Foursquare social profiles
Digital presenceFoursquare compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance4 records
Foursquare financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Foursquare leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles23 records
Foursquare subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Foursquare funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds11 records
Investors15 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Foursquare M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A3 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Foursquare
What does Foursquare do?
Foursquare is a location intelligence platform that provides marketers, developers, and data analysts with location-based technology, data, and measurement tools. Its core offerings include omnichannel attribution (connecting ad exposure to physical store visits), location-based audience targeting, real-time geofencing/proximity, a 100M+ global POI Places database, and geospatial analytics workspaces, all powered by proprietary stop-detection and Snap-to-Place algorithms trained on 16B+ human-verified check-ins.
Is Foursquare a public or private company?
Foursquare is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Foursquare founded?
Foursquare was founded in 2009. It employs 501 to 1,000 people.
Where is Foursquare based?
Foursquare is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Foursquare make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. API and Platform Licensing is the primary driver. The others are attribution Measurement Services, audience and Proximity Targeting and places Data Licensing.
Who are Foursquare's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Placer.ai, SafeGraph, PlaceIQ, Mapbox, GroundTruth, Near and Radar. Broad incumbents are Esri, TomTom and Google Maps Platform.
Does Foursquare have an API?
Yes. Foursquare offers multiple APIs including Places API for real-time place data access, Movement SDK for location-aware mobile experiences (Android, iOS, React Native), Studio Data API for managing cloud assets (maps, datasets), and Measurement API for attribution. APIs support authentication, rate limits, and provide access to location intelligence capabilities including POI data, visit detection, and geospatial analytics. Developer documentation is at docs.foursquare.com.
What industry is Foursquare in?
Foursquare's product category is Location Intelligence Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMANAJ, Geofencing, Proximity & Location-Based Engagement Platforms, with a secondary code of BPAMANAC, Geocoding, Search & Place Data Platforms. Its NAICS code is 51929.