Steve Anderson, the first person to invest in Instagram who sits at No. 2 on Forbes’ Midas List of top investors, is leading a $2.25 million round in Appuri.
The Seattle-based startup, which launched in 2012 and graduated from the 9Mile Labs accelerator in 2013, collects customer usage data to predict when customers are dissatisfied with a service so companies can combat attrition. Appuri’s platform applies a “churn score” to various customers, indicating the likelihood that they may leave.
Appuri CEO Damon Danieli told GeekWire that Anderson, who invested via his firm Baseline Ventures, led the $2.25 million round, which also included new investor TDF Ventures and existing investors like Divergent Ventures and Vulcan Capital. Steve Mankoff of TDF Ventures is joining the company’s board as a result of the new funding.
The fresh cash will be used to fuel marketing and sales efforts.
“We provide our customers a data-centric approach to proactively keep their users longer,” noted Danieli. “Our key differentiator is our robust data platform which removes the need for companies to hire a team of data architects, engineers and scientists.”
Appuri also plans to grow its team, eventually reaching 20 employees by the end of 2016, said Danieli. The CEO previously served as CTO and founder of mobile games company Z2, which was sold two years ago to King Digital. He co-founded Appuri with Bilal Aslam, a former Microsoft employee who previously ran the Windows Azure Store.
