The LSE Directory / Alternative data
SafeGraph is a US data company that builds and sells structured reference data about physical places. Its flagship Places dataset catalogues points of interest, business listings, building footprint geometry and geocoded addresses, refreshed on a monthly cycle so store openings, closures and other changes are reflected quickly; the company's own site currently cites coverage of over 80 million verified locations worldwide. A companion Geometry product supplies building footprint polygons and an Address product provides structured, geocoded address data. The company sells primarily to data science and engineering teams rather than marketers, positioning its data as production ready, normalised reference data that removes the cleaning work customers would otherwise do themselves. Alongside Places, SafeGraph offers a Spend dataset: anonymised, place-linked US credit and debit card transaction data (median transaction size, spend by day, in-person versus online split, customer frequency and demographics) with history back to January 2019, aggregated and delivered monthly. A notable business model shift is that SafeGraph stopped publishing its device-level Patterns mobility and foot-traffic dataset at the end of 2022 and reassigned those licenses to Advan Research, narrowing its own catalogue to place reference data and place-linked spend rather than raw movement tracking; several competitors in the location-data category still sell foot-traffic or device-movement products directly. SafeGraph was founded in 2016 by Auren Hoffman, who served as CEO until stepping down in October 2024 and becoming chairman; Jason Richman, previously the company's chief revenue officer, succeeded him as CEO. The company has raised a reported 61 million dollars in total funding, including a 45 million dollar Series B in March 2021 led by Sapphire Ventures with participation from Ridge Ventures and DNX Ventures. It is headquartered in Denver, Colorado, having relocated from San Francisco in 2020. Cited customers and integration partners include Esri, Mapbox, FactSet, Sysco, Ares Management and Choice Hotels, and per its 2021 funding announcement, its data had been used by more than 7,000 data scientists and cited in over 300 academic papers at that time. SafeGraph's location-data sales have drawn regulatory and press scrutiny. The Electronic Frontier Foundation documented purchases of SafeGraph location data by government bodies including the Illinois Department of Transportation and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention around 2019 to 2021, and Google removed SafeGraph's SDK from Play Store listed apps in 2021 for location-data policy violations. In May 2022, following public pressure, SafeGraph said it would stop selling data on visits to family planning and reproductive health locations.
