Customer insights startup Streetbees raises $40m

Each year, brands will spend billions typically relying on surveys and observation groups, to try and understand what their customers think.

One company who wants to switch up this cycle is Streetbees. This customer insights startup has created a mass online database, quantifying consumers’ thoughts and whims for the benefits of brands. Luckily for the company, it has just raised a $40m Series B from some of Europe’s leading VC firms, led by Lakestar.

Founded in 2014 by Tugce Bulut, Streetbees now has a 100-person team spread across offices in London, Lisbon and North America. Its ‘bees’ are based everywhere from Kenya to France, India to the UK.

The tasks behind the company’s vision might include taking a photo of the equipment they use to make a cup of coffee, then answering a series of questions about where they bought the beans from and what time of day it is. Then, using artificial intelligence, their answers are analysed, allowing companies to determine general trends in how people think about their brands and target their advertising accordingly.

Streetbees has been loved by many big brands partially because it has claimed revenue growth of 150% over the last 12 months. It’s worked with Unilever, PepsiCo, Sony Pictures, Carlsburg, Santander, Ikea, Vodafone, L’Oreal and even the UK’s National Health Service during the pandemic, with the aim of helping authorities to monitor public sentiment during lockdown.

“Streetbees will become the de-facto market research platform for brands needing real-time access to rapidly changing consumer markets”, says Bulut