Near Raises $100m as It Prepares to Go Public

Behavioral and location insights specialist Near has raised $100m in a new round of funding, as it prepares to become a publicly traded company.

Headquartered in Los Angeles with offices in Silicon Valley, Paris, Bangalore, Singapore, Sydney and Tokyo, the firm brings together and analyses consumers' off-line and online data from disparate sources. Brands, enterprises and publishers use its platform to access location, transaction and other real-world signals from more than 1.6 billion users in over 70 million places, across 44 countries.

In May, Near announced it had entered into a combination agreement with special purpose acquisition company Kludeln, and upon closing it is expected to be renamed Near Intelligence, with its common stock traded on The Nasdaq Stock Market. The deal is predicted to generate gross proceeds of approximately $268m.

New funding comes from Blue Torch Capital, and according to Near founder & CEO Anil Mathews (pictured) will both strengthen the firm's balance sheet and helps to position it as a market leader. He adds: 'The financing combined with our upcoming business combination with KludeIn provides liquidity to continue to execute on our winning flywheel for enhanced business outcomes'.

Web site: www.near.com .