At App Annie, our mission is to empower app publishers and developers with cutting-edge business intelligence solutions that fuel their growth in the global app economy. But how did we get here? Let's take a journey through our history.

Bertrand Schmitt, a China-based mobile marketing executive at Gomez, was fascinated by a side project called App Nanny, developed by Exoweb, a software development outsourcing company. Seeing its potential to provide valuable insights for marketers, Schmitt decided to spin it out as a separate company in 2010. Renaming it App Annie, he launched the free service with a team of five employees.

The initial offering included Analytics and Store Stats features, which allowed app publishers to track their downloads, rankings, revenues, and reviews. Later that year, we raised $1 million in funding. In 2012, we introduced Intelligence, an algorithm-based market estimation feature that helped businesses craft effective marketing strategies.

Our first client was a consulting company that bought our service on behalf of a hedge fund. As we grew to 15 employees, we needed more space and soon became known for delivering advanced features to meet user requests. We also partnered with research firm IDC to publish a quarterly mobile gaming report.

More funding followed, including $6 million in August 2012 and $15 million in summer 2013. In 2013, we launched Advertising Analytics, which quickly gained popularity. By February 2015, we had over 45,000 users.

Benefits at App Annie

Our niche market business model targets mobile app publishers involved in game development. We offer five primary value propositions: convenience, price, accessibility, risk reduction, and brand/status.

Convenience is key as our detailed data and analysis reports save app publishers time and effort. Our free features, including App Analytics and Store Stats, provide valuable insights on rankings, reviews, and revenues. Accessibility is ensured through our premium feature, allowing customers to access information for their own app and millions of others.

We reduce risk by offering robust security features, including encryption and secure servers. Our strong brand has been established through our success, with over 500,000 members and prominent clients like Google, LinkedIn, Ubisoft, PayPal, Target, Microsoft, and Samsung Electronics.

Channels

Our main channels are our website for free services and our direct sales team for premium offerings. We promote our service through social media pages and engage with customers through email support and a community forum.

Customer Relationships

Our customer relationship is primarily self-service, automated in nature. Customers utilize the platform while having limited interaction with employees. We provide answers to frequently asked questions on our website and offer email support and a community element in the form of a forum.

Key Activities

Maintaining our software platform and developing products for customers are crucial activities that drive our business model.

Key Partners

We collaborate with leading market research vendors, including IDC, Kantar, and IHS Technology, to produce joint industry reports. We also partner with top mobile advertising platforms, such as Ad Colony, AdMob by Google, Facebook, Fyber, heyZap, Inmobi, Mobvista, Playhaven, and Revmob.

Key Resources

Our proprietary software platform is our main resource, serving more than 500,000 customers. We also rely on human resources in the form of technology workers to maintain the platform and marketing employees to promote it. As a relatively new startup, we've relied heavily on funding from outside parties, raising $157 million from six investors as of January 2016.

Cost Structure

Our cost structure is driven by investments in our software platform, human resources, and marketing efforts.