Big data analytics company Near Pte Ltd., which owns what it says is the world’s largest datasets on people’s behavior, is gearing up for expansion after landing $100 million in a new round of funding.

The investment announced today was made by London-based private equity firm Greater Pacific Capital. It brings Near’s total funding to date to $134 million, following earlier investments from Sequoia Capital and JP Morgan.

Near said its dataset provides location, transaction and other real-world signals from more than 1.6 billion people in the world. The company uses this dataset to power its analytics products, including its flagship Allspark platform for marketing automation, which is used by companies such as WeWork Companies Inc., Mastercard International Inc., News Corp. and MetLife Services and Solutions LLC. Near further augments its analytics tools with artificial intelligence to help clients make better decisions based on its data.

Near also sells a second product called Carbon, which can be used by companies to enrich their existing datasets with its real-time signals.

In an interview with SiliconANGLE, Near founder and Chief Executive Officer Anil Mathews said the company’s enormous dataset was amassed over a period of seven years, sourced from range of partners, including data aggregators, application partners, Wi-Fi partners, public hotspots, census organizations, among others.

“From these multiple sources, Near takes the raw, unfiltered and unstructured data signals and put it into context by adding a layer of data science on top it,” Mathews said. “Near’s customers can then understand behaviors of users not just based on the places they are visiting, but on the behavior they exhibit in the real world.”

Mathews insisted that user privacy is also at the top of the company’s mind, noting that all of its information is collected based on “opt-in consent” from users.

“Our platform never stores or deals with personally identifiable information, and all incoming data streams are consensual,” he said. “Near is GDPR-compliant, and the platform has built-in processes to forget and purge user data on requests.”

Mathews said the company will use the new funds to strengthen its position in its existing markets and also expand into new strategic markets it has identified. As part of that plan, Near intends to launch a new suite of data products powered by its dataset and AI tools.

“[We have] some really exciting product launches in the pipeline,” Mathews added. “These products will be an offshoot of the core platform and will enable users to leverage real-world data better.”

Image: Near