Booming Streetbees Names COO

In London, mobile-based customer insights platform Streetbees has hired former Foursquare MD Omid Ashtari as Chief Operating Officer, as the company plans an expansion and recruitment drive following 110% growth in the first six months of 2020.

Streetbees combines artificial intelligence and geolocation technology to collect data from more than 3.5 million users (or 'bees'), who share moments from their daily lives through videos, photos and text using a chat-style app. The company is hiring for 30 positions in sales and marketing across London, New York and Chicago, and aims to increase headcount by almost 50% to approximately 130 people by next year.

Ashtari (pictured) joins from public transit app Citymapper, where he served as President and Head of Business. Before this he worked for location intelligence provider Foursquare as MD for Europe; and spent more than seven years at Google, latterly as a New Business Development Manager. He has been a Streetbees investor and Non-Executive Director since 2016, and is currently a Business Advisory Board Member for the Mayor of London.

Simon Andrews, from company investor BGF Ventures, comments: 'The current pandemic is creating challenges for businesses in every sector, but the fact that Streetbees has been able to increase revenue so dramatically during this time is a testament to the value it provides. We're excited to see the impact Omid taking over the operations function will have and confident that the best is still yet to come'.

Web site: www.streetbees.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.