Qloo
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Artificial intelligence, Technology |
| Founded | 2012 |
| Founder | Alex Elias, Jay Alger |
Key people | Alex Elias (CEO and Chairman), Jay Alger (COO) |
| Products | AI-powered cultural recommendation API |
Qloo (pronounced "clue") utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to examine taste and cultural connections, providing an application programming interface (API) designed for business clients. Notable investors include Leonardo DiCaprio, Elton John, Barry Sternlicht, and Pierre Lagrange.
By employing machine learning techniques on data spanning cultural domains such as music, cinema, cuisine, fashion, literature, and travel, Qloo forecasts consumer preferences and facilitates precise recommendation delivery.
History
Established in 2012 by CEO Alex Elias and COO Jay Alger, Qloo began with a consumer-focused app aimed at customizing taste exploration. This initiative quickly attracted a sizable user community and amassed a broad cultural dataset. Initial seed funding of $1.4 million came from investors including Cedric the Entertainer and Kindler Capital.
After launching a public beta late in 2012, Qloo secured an additional $1.6 million in 2013 from backers such as Tommy Thompson (founder of Cross Creek Pictures) and Maktoob's founders Samih Toukan and Hussam Khoury. That year marked the debut of Qloo’s website and iPhone application, followed by Android and tablet versions in 2014.
In 2015, Twitter partnered with Qloo to create an enterprise-grade API tailored for personalized social media feeds and targeted advertising, signaling Qloo’s pivot from consumer to enterprise markets. Although Twitter eventually moved away from this application, Qloo broadened its API services to other corporate customers.
Qloo completed a $4.5 million Series A financing round in 2016, supported by investors including Barry Sternlicht, Pierre Lagrange, and Leonardo DiCaprio. In July 2017, it raised $6.5 million from AXA Strategic Ventures and Elton John to expand its database capabilities and secure larger corporate accounts. Its clientele included Fortune 500 companies such as Twitter, PepsiCo, and BMW.
The acquisition of cultural recommendation platform TasteDive occurred in 2019, with Alex Elias assuming the role of chairman. That same year, Qloo was named among the Top 14 Artificial Intelligence APIs by ProgrammableWeb.
In 2022, the company obtained $15 million in Series B funding from Eldridge and AXA Venture Partners to enhance its AI-powered recommendation API, develop its technology infrastructure, grow its data science team, and expand sales efforts targeting global Fortune 500 clients. Qloo received the "Best Decision Intelligence Company" award at the 2023 AI Breakthrough Awards and was recognized as a Top Performer by SourceForge in 2023. As of 2024, it has been honored three times on the Inc. 5000 list: ranked No. 360 in 2022, No. 344 in 2021, and No. 187 in 2020.
On February 21, 2024, Qloo closed a $25 million Series C round led by AI Ventures with participation from AXA Venture Partners, Eldridge, and Moderne Ventures. This capital injection will support new commercial uses for Taste AI including on-device learning capabilities and foundational models as well as a self-service platform aimed at small to mid-sized businesses and individual users. The company also intends to pursue strategic acquisitions to strengthen its first-party data assets following the TasteDive purchase. Since its founding, total funds raised have surpassed $56 million.
Services and features
Qloo functions as a cultural AI platform providing instantaneous correlation insights across diverse sectors such as film, music, television, dining, nightlife, fashion, literature, and travel. Each main category is further divided into various subcategories. By analyzing a user's tastes within one domain, Qloo generates cross-category recommendations that are continuously refined through user input. The company has formed strategic alliances with prominent organizations like Expedia and iTunes to broaden its industry presence.
Technology
Qloo’s Taste AI utilizes advanced machine learning techniques to examine 3.7 billion lifestyle elements alongside trillions of anonymized consumer behavior signals, enabling it to predict preferences while maintaining user privacy. The platform’s algorithms detect trends to anticipate preferences for individuals or groups across multiple cultural fields. It incorporates mechanisms to identify and reduce biases related to factors such as age, gender, and ethnicity, promoting responsible AI usage. Tools for visualization facilitate counterfactual evaluations and comparisons of model performance across different demographic segments. Crucially, Qloo’s AI operates without collecting Personally Identifiable Information (PII), depending solely on anonymized data correlations to generate audience insights.
Applications
- Starbucks employs Qloo to customize in-store music selections tailored to specific neighborhood demographics.
- Hershey’s utilizes Qloo’s insights to personalize the assortment of candies in its mixed bags.
- Michelin integrates Qloo within its Michelin Guide app to offer users individualized recommendations.
- Netflix applies Qloo’s technology to improve merchandising strategies by identifying actors who resonate with particular audience segments.
Additionally, Qloo provides services to leading clients including PepsiCo, Samsung, The New York Mets, BuzzFeed, Ticketmaster, Universal Music Group, and the advertising agency JCDecaux.