The 2020s’ newest unicorn has its sights set on Asia’s $30b mobile app market

We’re not even a month into the 2020s, but a US$210 million series D funding round has just made AppsFlyer the new decade’s latest unicorn, following in the footsteps of Israel’s Sisense, the UK’s Arrival, and fellow US-based startups HighRadius and ClassPass.

Like the on-demand fitness app, AppsFlyer will be focusing its efforts and freshly obtained funds on the Asia-Pacific region. The San Francisco-based company provides marketing attribution and fraud prevention software as a service to brand owners. (In industry parlance, attribution refers to the process of measuring how effective marketing efforts are across different channels, and assigning a value to each activity.)

See: How ClassPass has succeeded in Asia where its competitors have failed

Each of its 12,000-plus clients pays a licensing fee, which varies based on the products they use, and the scale and customization they require.

Founded by Israelis Oren Kaniel and Reshef Mann in 2011, AppsFlyer says that it’s a world leader in the attribution software space. The claim seems to be backed by a 2018 study by Mobbo indicating that the startup had a dominant hold across Android and iOS, with 74% and 59% market share, respectively. Its closest competitors include Germany’s Adjust, China’s TalkingData, and fellow US-based outfits Kochava and Tune.

At present, AppsFlyer, which graduated from Microsoft’s Scale-up Tel Aviv Accelerator in 2012, has 18 offices across the globe, including six in Asia Pacific.

Coupled with the announcement of its General Atlantic-led series D close and attainment of unicorn status, the startup has unveiled a new office in Jakarta.

(From L to R) Reshef Mann, co-founder and CTO, AppsFlyer; Anton Levy, co-president and global head of technology, General Atlantic; Oren Kaniel, co-founder and CEO, AppsFlyer / Photo credit: AppsFlyer

Ronen Mense, AppsFlyer’s president and managing director for Asia Pacific, says that having a permanent, on-the-ground presence in Indonesia is “a natural progression.” In the last five years, the company has been working with homegrown brands such as Gojek, Ruangguru, and Tokopedia. Other Asia-Pacific clients include Agoda, Sea Group, and Tencent.

“Our primary aim with this office opening is to better support our customers there so they could grow their businesses further,” Mense tells Tech in Asia in an interview.

A market worth $30 billion

Apart from serving and building on its existing client base, AppsFlyer’s expansion in Asia aims to take advantage of growing demand for marketing analytics and attribution tools from the region’s brand owners.

Recent research from the company predicts that global app install ad spend – in other words, the amount of money spent by brand owners to encourage consumers to download their apps – will grow to US$64.1 billion in value this year.

Combating fraud