App Annie Raises $55 million, launches new product for tracking app usage

App Annie has announced a new $55 million round of Series D funding. App Annie is a resource that has become a go to resource for conclusive data on app downloads, rankings, and app store trends. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), and included existing investors Sequoia Capital, Greycroft Partners and IDG Capital Partners.

In addition to the round of funding, the company is rolling out ‘Usage Intelligence’ its new product into beta. Usage Intelligence will allow app publishers, marketers, investors and other mobile industry leaders to gain deeper insights into usage patterns within applications. It will do this by providing data on active users, time spent in apps, usage frequency and user retention.

According to CEO Bertrand Schmitt, The company has spent two years building this new usage product, which he says is initially being targeted toward the company’s enterprise customers.

Using the tool, App Annie customers will be able to analyse their own apps as well as that of competitors, gaining insights into detailed data that demonstrate how popular an app is outside of downloads. This sort of data exist when one is downloading any App but this is usually provided by the app itself and as such is prone to being tempered with in order for apps to be listed as popular.

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App Annie will display DAU, WAU and MAU figures (daily, weekly and monthly active users), plus analyze how long users engage with applications, how often they launch them, and how well those apps are retaining their users.

Eric Liaw, a board member at App Annie, explains the importance of the app:

“There are many other activities that monetize directly and indirectly through mobile apps and members of the mobile ecosystem need to be able to recognize next level trends beyond simply downloads. It’s very pertinent to know which apps are being used, how often and by whom.”

App Annie is also planning to become more of a social platform. Allowing users and colleagues to follow each other on the service. It could also aid in finding external contacts, like those who could help you when planning an international launch for your app, notes Schmitt.

The Usage product is launching into beta today for existing customers, with plans to roll out to the broader public in Q2.