Factual
Foursquare is an enterprise location intelligence platform serving marketers, BI teams, and developers with 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries, powering attribution, audience targeting, geospatial analytics, and location APIs.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2009
- HeadquartersLos Angeles, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Factual does
Foursquare is an enterprise location intelligence platform serving three primary customer segments: enterprise marketers, spatial analysts/BI teams, and software developers. The company operates a proprietary dataset of 16 billion+ check-ins, 100 million+ Points of Interest across 200+ countries, and 9 billion+ monthly visits from 500 million+ devices, built over 15+ years of operation since its 2009 founding as a consumer check-in app. The technical foundation rests on proprietary stop-detection algorithms that map device visits to physical venues and H3 hexagonal spatial indexing that simplifies geospatial analytics for data scientists.
The product portfolio is organized into three lines. For marketers: Attribution (omnichannel campaign measurement), Audience (behavior-based targeting), and Proximity (custom real-time geofencing). The Geospatial Intelligence Platform suite — Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop, and Spatial Studio — serves BI and data science teams with cloud-scale spatial analytics. For developers: Places API, Movement SDK, and Places POI data offer building blocks for location-aware applications, complemented by the Placemaker open-source POI tool.
Revenue is generated through API and developer platform licensing, enterprise marketing subscriptions, geospatial intelligence platform subscriptions, and POI data licensing. Distribution combines enterprise direct sales for large marketers, a self-serve developer console with a freemium tier, cloud marketplace listings (AWS, Snowflake), and OEM/embedded integrations with 550+ technology partners including AWS, Google, The Trade Desk, TikTok, Adobe, Spotify, and Snapchat. Named enterprise customers include Apple, Uber, Coca-Cola, Airbnb, Samsung, JetBlue, and AB InBev. The company is privately held with cumulative disclosed venture funding of approximately $104 million and is headquartered in San Francisco with no public listing.
Factual firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Factual
- Legal name
- Foursquare
- Website
- https://factual.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2009
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Foursquare is an enterprise location intelligence platform serving marketers, BI teams, and developers with 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries, powering attribution, audience targeting, geospatial analytics, and location APIs.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Factual industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Location Intelligence Platform
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Web Search Portals and All Other Information Services (51929), Software Publishers (5132)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374)
- akta.pro primary industry
- POI, Local Listings & Business Directory Platforms (BPAMANAD)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- GIS & Spatial Data Management Platforms (BPAMANAK), Geocoding, Search & Place Data Platforms (BPAMANAC)
Keywords
Where Factual is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Los Angeles
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Factual business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- API and Developer Platform Licensing: Revenue from Places API, Movement SDK, and developer tools with various access tiers. Developers pay for API usage with different plans available.
- Enterprise Marketing Solutions: Attribution, Audience, and Proximity products sold to enterprise marketers for campaign measurement and consumer targeting. Revenue from enterprise contracts with flexible plans.
- Geospatial Intelligence Platform: Spatial Workbench, H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop, and Spatial Studio products for BI teams and data scientists with cloud-based and desktop deployments
- POI Data Licensing: Places POI data sold to businesses for app development, competitive analysis, and data enrichment
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free tier available for developers |
Go-to-market motion3 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels9 records
Factual product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Factual operates a location intelligence platform that ingests billions of location signals to produce a global POI catalog, geospatial analytics tools, and audience/attribution products. Its portfolio includes Attribution, Audience, and Proximity solutions for marketers; the Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop, and Spatial Studio suite for spatial analysts and BI teams; and Places API, Movement SDK, Places POI Data, and Open Source tools for developers, supported by enterprise direct sales and a self-serve developer portal.
Product overview
Foursquare is an industry-leading location intelligence platform offering a comprehensive portfolio of products organized across three main segments: Marketers (Attribution, Audience, Proximity), Geospatial Intelligence Platform (Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop, Spatial Studio), and Developers (Places API, Movement SDK, Places POI Data, Open Source). The platform is powered by 16B+ check-ins, 100M+ POIs across 200+ countries, and 9B+ monthly visits from 500M+ devices. The portfolio ranges from turnkey measurement solutions for marketers to scalable building blocks for developers, all supported by a network of 550+ integrated partners.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Swarm: Consumer check-in app for tracking places visited
- FSQ Attribution
- Spatial Workbench
- Spatial H3 Hub
- Spatial Desktop
- Spatial Studio
- Places API
- Movement SDK
- Placemaker
Products and services
- Attribution Omnichannel campaign attribution solution that analyzes campaign performance, tracks real-world conversions, and optimizes ad spend across marketing channels for enterprise marketers.
- Audience Audience targeting platform that creates audiences reflecting real-world consumer behavior to reach in-market customers with accuracy at scale.
- Proximity Custom real-time geofencing solution that reaches consumers at the right time by building accurate geofences based on their real-time movements.
- Spatial Workbench Cloud-based spatial analytics platform that transforms business questions into actionable maps and insights with familiar tools and instant cloud scale, for BI teams and data scientists.
- Spatial H3 Hub H3-indexed geospatial feature enrichment tool purpose-built to eliminate complexity of spatial data preparation for data scientists.
- Spatial Desktop Desktop geospatial computing platform providing instant query performance on multi-gigabyte datasets and real-time visualization rendering for data scientists.
- Spatial Studio Cloud-based geospatial workspace combining map making, advanced analytics, permissions, and sharing capabilities.
- Places API Real-time API providing accurate global place data for apps, enabling users to discover venues nearby and increase customer satisfaction.
- Movement SDK SDK for building location-aware experiences that personalizes in-app content at precisely the right time with developer-friendly tools.
- Places POI Data Comprehensive point of interest data offering precise venue information across 200+ countries, powering POI applications and location insights for businesses and developers.
- Foursquare Swarm Consumer check-in app that allows users to check in and track places they visit, retained as a wholly owned sub-brand.
- Business Listings Platform for businesses to connect with customers by managing their presence on the location network.
- Placemaker Open Source Open source access to POI data for building location-driven projects and community contribution, including Placemaker tools.
Quantifiable outcome
- 8.8% lift in foot traffic for Jack in the Box DOOH campaign
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Factual
Customer profileNamed customers13 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Factual technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration3 records
AI capability3 records
Feature9 records
Factual partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Six partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)coreCloud infrastructure partnership for hosting and delivering Foursquare location data and analytics services through AWS marketplace
- SnowflakecoreData marketplace integration allowing Snowflake customers to access Foursquare POI and location data within their data workflows
- The Trade DeskcoreProgrammatic advertising integration enabling location-based audience targeting through The Trade Desk's DSP platform
- GooglecoreIntegration with Google's advertising and developer platforms for location data services
- TikTokcoreLocation data integration for TikTok's advertising platform enabling geo-targeted ad campaigns
- AdobecoreIntegration with Adobe Experience Cloud for location-based marketing and analytics capabilities
Scale indicators9 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Factual competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Unacast: Unacast is a location data and analytics platform providing POI data, foot-traffic insights, and movement data for retailers, real estate, and advertisers; it overlaps with Foursquare's POI data and audience products.
- Near (formerly Near Intelligence): Near is a data intelligence platform that provides location-based audience targeting, consumer insights, and data licensing built on first-party location signals; it competes with Foursquare across marketing solutions and POI data licensing.
- GroundTruth: GroundTruth is a location-based marketing platform using visit data to power audience targeting, proximity campaigns, and attribution; it directly overlaps with Foursquare's Audience, Proximity, and Attribution products for enterprise advertisers.
- PlaceIQ: PlaceIQ is a location data and intelligence company offering audience targeting, attribution, and movement insights powered by location signals; it directly competes with Foursquare's marketing solutions stack.
- Placer.ai: Placer.ai is a location intelligence platform offering foot-traffic analytics, audience insights, and competitive intelligence built on aggregated mobile location data; it directly competes with Foursquare's Attribution, Audience, and POI data offerings for enterprise marketers and retailers.
- SafeGraph: SafeGraph is a POI data provider offering places, geometry, and foot-traffic datasets to data scientists and enterprises; it competes head-to-head with Foursquare's Places POI Data and developer API products for data licensing customers.
Broad incumbents
- HERE Technologies: HERE is a global mapping and location platform providing maps, POI data, and geospatial services across automotive, logistics, and enterprise; it competes with Foursquare's POI data and spatial analytics offerings as a broad incumbent with deeper mapping heritage.
- Mapbox: Mapbox provides mapping, navigation, and location APIs for developers and enterprises, with a strong developer ecosystem; it competes with Foursquare's developer tools and geospatial platform offerings on the location infrastructure layer.
- TomTom: TomTom is a global geolocation technology specialist offering maps, navigation, and location APIs; its developer-facing APIs and POI data partially overlap with Foursquare's Places API and POI data licensing business.
Emerging players
- Skyhook Wireless: Skyhook provides hybrid positioning, location services, and POI data for mobile and IoT applications; it is a smaller-scale direct competitor focused on device-level location accuracy versus Foursquare's broader marketing and analytics stack.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Factual social profiles
Digital presenceFactual financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Factual leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Factual subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries1 record
Factual funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds4 records
Investors15 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Factual M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Factual
What does Factual do?
Factual operates a location intelligence platform that ingests billions of location signals to produce a global POI catalog, geospatial analytics tools, and audience/attribution products. Its portfolio includes Attribution, Audience, and Proximity solutions for marketers; the Spatial Workbench, Spatial H3 Hub, Spatial Desktop, and Spatial Studio suite for spatial analysts and BI teams; and Places API, Movement SDK, Places POI Data, and Open Source tools for developers, supported by enterprise direct sales and a self-serve developer portal.
Is Factual a public or private company?
Factual is a private company. It is classified as venture growth investor backed and is currently operating.
When was Factual founded?
Factual was founded in 2009. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Factual based?
Factual is headquartered in Los Angeles, United States, in the North America region.
How does Factual make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. API and Developer Platform Licensing is the primary driver. The others are enterprise Marketing Solutions, geospatial Intelligence Platform and POI Data Licensing.
Who are Factual's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Unacast, Near (formerly Near Intelligence), GroundTruth, PlaceIQ, Placer.ai and SafeGraph. Broad incumbents are HERE Technologies, Mapbox and TomTom. Skyhook Wireless is listed as an emerging player.
Does Factual have an API?
Yes. Foursquare offers developer tools including Places API for real-time venue data access, Movement SDK for building location-aware experiences, and Dev Console for accessing location developer tools. Developers can use these APIs to power products with location data, build better app experiences, and access high-quality POI data. Documentation available at docs.foursquare.com. Developer documentation is at docs.foursquare.com.
What industry is Factual in?
Factual's product category is Location Intelligence Platform. Its primary akta.pro industry code is BPAMANAD, POI, Local Listings & Business Directory Platforms, with a secondary code of BPAMANAK, GIS & Spatial Data Management Platforms. Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 7370.