Like practically every other part of the technology world, the mobile application ecosystem is also undergoing major changes thanks to the introduction of data insights into the picture. Much of the credit for the rapid adoption of the trend among developers goes to App Annie Inc., which raised $63 million in new funding this morning to maintain its position at the forefront of the movement.

The six-year-old analytics provider claims that nearly 900,000 apps currently rely on its freemium software in order to collect demographic information about their users. App Annie makes it possible to track everything from location to education levels and understand exactly how each individual segment of the install base interacts with the application. According to the company, developers can use the functionality in order to find areas for improvement and put a concrete number on the success their monetization efforts, down the impact of every new feature addition.

The data that App Annie collects from an application is not only made available for its publisher but also synchronized to the startup’s own internal analytics environment, where it’s merged with metrics collected from other software to produce high-level intelligence about the mobile market as a whole. The firm sells its competitive intelligence as a part of a separate offering that enables organizations to compare how they shape up against the competition in terms of downloads and revenue across every major platform.

That dual value proposition of user analytics and market insights has helped App Annie attracted hundreds of paying clients, many of which count themselves among the world’s leading application publishers. Chief executive Bertrand Schmitt said in an interview given on occasion of the funding round that each pays about $80,000 annually, revenue that has allowed the startup to increase its headcount by 25 percent over the past 12 months to 400. The new capital will help grow that number to “way more” than 500 employees by the end of the year.

App Annie now boasts a total of $157 million in external funding from nearly a dozen different investors. The latest addition to the list is Greenspring Associates, which led its newest round. Existing backers Sequoia Capital, Greycroft Partners, e.Ventures and Institutional Venture Partners contributed as well.

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