 | |
| Formerly | InfoArmy, Inc.[1] |
|---|---|
| Company type | Subsidiary |
| Industry | Internet services |
| Founded | 2011; 15 years ago (2011) |
| Founder |
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Key people |
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| Revenue | US$3.3 million |
Number of employees | 88 |
| Parent | Meltwater |
| Website | owler |
Owler is an American Internet company headquartered inSan Mateo, California. Itcrowdsources competitive insights[2] by providing news alerts, company profiles, and polls and allows members to follow, track, and research companies in real time.
The company was founded in 2011 and has over 3.5 million active users. In June 2021, it was acquired byMeltwater.[3]
InfoArmy was founded in 2011 by Jim Fowler, Rajan Madhavan, and Tim Harsch. Fowler previously founded Jigsaw (later called Data.com), another crowdsourcingData as a Service platform that was sold for 175M toSalesforce in 2010.[4]
InfoArmy launched publicly in June 2012,[5] and had 28 employees as of October 23, 2012.
InfoArmy began as acrowdsourcing model where two-person research teams would compile one report on each company. Most researchers were stay-at-home parents,freelance workers, and internationalBPO workers.[6] Access to InfoArmy's reports cost $99 for a year-long subscription and three quarterly reports.
In January 2013, InfoArmy announced that its business model would not be sustainable in the long term.
On February 1, 2013, InfoArmy relaunched as Owler, Inc. using a different business model.[7] Owler offers a free mobile and online platform for company information and interactive business news.[8] Members can choose to "follow" a set of companies, and Owler provides a personalizednewsfeed and daily email summary of the latest news on those companies. Owler members can also sign up to receive immediate notifications when major business events (such asfunding,acquisitions, or leadership changes) occur. Thecompetitive intelligence featured on Owler comes from two primary places: it is both hand-curated by Owler employees from sources across the web, and crowdsourced from Owler users. Unlike otherbusiness information services, Owler polls its members to gauge market sentiment and current trends.
On June 18, 2021, Owler entered into an agreement to be acquired bysoftware as a service company, Meltwater, for $18.9 million in cash and $5.6 million in Meltwater equity.[9]
Owler is backed byNorwest Venture Partners and Trinity Ventures, two venture capital firms based inSilicon Valley, California. On Oct. 23, 2012, the company raised $17.3 million in Series B venture capital, bringing its funding to $19.3 million.[10] Owler has raised a total of $30.8 millionin funding over four rounds.
As part of theCOVID-19 pandemic, the company received between $350,000 and $1 million in federally backed small business loan fromSilicon Valley Bank as part of thePaycheck Protection Program. The company stated it would allow them to retain zero jobs.[11]
Owler offers a number of different services, including two email products as well as a browser-based web platform.
Members can view their personalized newsfeed on the browser-based platform, which can be accessed via computer or smartphone. They can also view company profiles, edit profile information, and take polls through the web platform.
The web version also gives members access to lists that contain data about major events, such as funding rounds or acquisitions.
Owler's Daily Snapshot provides users with the latest news events in their industry. Owler curates the most relevant news and blog posts from within the last 24 hours, surfacing stories on that member's company, competitors, and prospects. Each Daily Snapshot is personalized to a user's Competitive Graph and based on the companies that user follows.
Owler emails users an Instant Insight anytime one of fifteen trigger events occur, including funding, acquisition, or leadership change. Users follow competitors, customers, prospects, and vendors, and Owler instantly sends full report hot anytime breaking events occur. This email features: company description, competitive landscape, and what people are saying.
Owler's Competitive Graph maps the relationship between companies. It was created by Owler's 3.5+ million members who regularly update their competitors (as well as provide estimates on critical data fields like revenue/employee numbers, CEO ratings, etc.).[12] The Competitive Graph maps how closely companies compete with one another, allowing Owler to rank competitors. The Competitive Graph powers all of Owler's products, allowing the company to provide highly personalized email alerts and feeds.[13]