Data Magnet Versium Sees Big Business in Life Data

Back in the 80’s, pop philosopher, Rockwell lamented that he always felt like somebody was watching him. What once sounded paranoia is big business today. Meet Versium – a company that says they’ve collected over 100 billion pieces of “life data” matching 3.1 billion email addresses, mobile phone numbers, social media accounts and more (You may never have heard of them, but chances are, they’ve heard of you). This week they announced a $2.5 million funding round to accelerate the deployment of their service.

Versium’s business is life data (or as they call it “LifeData™”). This data is basically exhaust data that individuals or even small businesses forge as they interact with the world around them. This includes the stuff that you would expect, such as name, city, address, etc., but it also includes finer details, such as books purchased, whether the person has a pet, do they golf, what their investing habits are, and much more. Essentially, it’s the data that makes a person an individual, and Versium offers a data platform to help businesses navigate it to target down to that individual level.

These “life data” details are very powerful in predicting behavior. With virtual data hoses hoovering them up from every corner of the Internet, their LifeData platform has potential to be a powerful analytics tool for just about any business. The platform, which collects, cleans, matches and scores the data profiles in the system is then offered (via API, or even batch upload) to businesses looking to either populate or increase the data fidelity of their own database.

One of the end products of Versium’s system are what they call “LifeData Predictive Scores,” which their clients the ability to micro-target down to the level of the individual as they do things like start college, begin a career, buy a car, get married, buy a house, have children, get divorced, retire, or go to a retirement home. Using these predictive scores, Versium says they can eliminate a lot of data noise, and help companies achieve project ROI.

“Our ability to produce and deliver predictive scores that address specific business needs, such as fraud prevention, churn reduction and social marketing optimization just got a boost,” said Chris Matty, CEO, Versium, speaking on the funding round that the company just received through TiE Angels Group Seattle.

While on a certain level the whole thing sounds creepy, the big data enthusiasts in us can’t help but marvel at how accessible this amount and detail of personal data is at virtually anyone’s fingertips. To that end, the company says that they are currently working with a number of well-established brands to deploy their data service and predictive scoring solutions.

With a fresh $2.5 million in hand, the company says that they’ll be looking to take their platform to the next level by investing in additional data science resources, as well as expanding their sales and marketing teams.

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