Placemeter provides a cloud-based computer-vision platform that analyzes video feeds from customers’ IP cameras to track pedestrian and vehicle (including bicycle and motorcycle) movement and dwell times. Customers can define virtual zones to measure interactions, and the company also offers on-demand archival video analysis at $20 per hour. Placemeter sells its own camera at an introductory $99 price and charges $149 per month per tracking point or $99/month with an annual commitment. The service is used by retail stores to measure foot-traffic and conversion, and by urban clients such as Montreal’s Quartier des Spectacles to measure transit and exhibit engagement. Placemeter is collecting data in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Tokyo and Montreal and expanded its product offering by beginning sales of its own hardware. The company emerged from TechStars NY Spring 2013 and participated in the New York Times’ TimesSpace program; founders are Alex Winter and Florent Peyre. Placemeter has raised a total of $7.8 million to date. Placemeter develops a data-gathering infrastructure that uses cameras and sensors (including Raspberry Pi-based devices and repurposed smartphones) plus computer vision to count people, cars, bikes and other conveyances and measure lingering and speed. The team pivoted from counting people inside stores to focusing on streets and public spaces and plans consumer-facing real-time pages and predictive models for how busy a place will be. They emphasize privacy by counting rather than storing video and sell aggregated counts and behavioral metrics as their product. To get comprehensive coverage in New York City they estimate needing roughly 2,000 cameras or sensors; they currently have less than half of that, including several hundred Department of Transportation devices and about 200 of their own. Placemeter also aims to incentivize private hosts with civic-app integrations and to push usable aggregate data back to city stakeholders.

Total raised

$8M

Funding rounds

2

Latest round

Series A

Latest activity

Jun 2015