Streetbees raises $40m in Series B funding

The Series B funding round was led by venture capital firm Lakestar, with participation from LocalGlobe, Atomico, GMG Ventures and Octopus.

The funding will enable Streetbees to carry out data acquisitions in sectors such as media and entertainment and finance, and help build a human intelligence platform.

The human intelligence platform would use the Streetbees platform to capture emotional responses and context in consumers’ reaction to brands. This would use the chat-style Streetbees app, which allows its 3.5m users to share moments from their daily lives via videos, photos and text, which is then analysed through advanced natural language processing technology.

The company, which is based in London and has offices in Lisbon, Chicago and New York, also plans to hire an additional 130 staff, bringing its total employee numbers to 230. Streetbees recently hired Omid Ashtari as chief operating officer as part of plans to expand in North America.

In 2018 Streetbees completed a $12m Series A funding round, which was led by Atomico and investors including LocalGlobe, Octopus and BGF Ventures.

Tugce Bulut, chief executive Streetbees, said of the Series B funding: “With this round of funding, we will accelerate the creation of a searchable world where brands can decipher human behaviour and decode the real reasons why consumers do what they do.”