CrowdSystems, the developer of retail analytics tools based on crowdsourcing technology, announced Friday that it closed a $1 million Series A round of financing from Russian venture fund InVenture Partners at an undisclosed valuation.
Similar to the international platform Quri.com, CrowdSystems provides retail companies and brands with crowdsourcing tools for retail audits and consumer research. Consumers are involved via the ‘TopMission’ platform, a mobile app where they may perform simple tasks to earn financial rewards from retailers.
Tasks vary from inspecting merchandising activities, to evaluating advertising campaigns and assessing the quality of store personnel.
TopMission was developed in 2013 and currently works with Colgate-Palmolive, Svyaznoy, RedBull and other brands, according to the company. The app has been installed by 100 000 users, who have carried out over 90 000 tasks. More than 50 projects across 450 cities were completed in 2013.
The cash raised in the Series A financing will be used to further develop the platform, as well broaden the range of data mining tools. Previously, CrowdSystems raised seed financing from the Moscow Seed Fund.
“Quantitative analytics in retail are currently powered mostly by BTL and research agencies. Their approach cannot guarantee information accuracy and requires significant time for implementation at the national level. Meanwhile, CrowdSystems is able to collect the required data in just a few days after the audit starts, and provides clients with detailed information supported by photo proof,” explains Dmitry Bezyzvestnyh, CrowdSystems co-founder and CEO.
InVenture Partners, a $100-million fund launched two years ago by Sergey Azatyan and Anton Inshutin, targets consumer technologies, financial and telecom products, online marketing and advertising tools, tourism platforms, and corporate services. Its portfolio currently includes the taxi booking service GetTaxi, the virtual mobile network Fogg, travel agency OnlineTours, online ad agency GetGoing, and the mobile payments service 2Can.
Last month, InVenture’s latest investment went to Netology, a major Russian online education platform featuring interactive video courses.
