Brick-and-Mortar Analytics Firm Raises $17.3 Million Funding Round

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based startup launched three years ago with the aim of “trying to recreate the clickstream for the physical world,” said co-founder and CEO Will Smith, whose 26-person team includes one of the founders of Google Analytics and a founding member of people-counter technology company ShopperTrak.

Since people in real life don’t mark moments in their lives with mouse clicks, Euclid had to identify another way to measure people’s behavior: their smartphones. Euclid installs sensors in retailers’ locations that can measure how many people walked by a store, how many walked in and for how long they stayed based on when their smartphones emit a kind of radar searching for wireless Internet signals.

According to Smith, someone doesn’t have to actually connect to a store’s WiFi network for Euclid to recognize their device’s unique identifier (specifically its MAC address), which lets the firm track the device’s movement as it pings for WiFi within range. Euclid blocks each device's unique identifiers, so that a retailer couldn’t hypothetically cross-reference a smartphone Euclid recognizes with one that has downloaded the retailer’s mobile app.

The $17.3 million infusion will go toward expanding Euclid’s product and engineering talent in order to add new features as well as filling out its headcount to support what Smith described as a growing customer base. Smith wouldn’t get too specific about the plans for new features but said he’s interested in trying to find the right ratio of sales associates to shoppers in order to stem long lines and a lack of sales people on the floor. “That’s where we’re going to be investing a lot of time,” he said.

Euclid’s latest funding round brings on a new investor in Benchmark Capital—the VC firm led the round, with participation from NEA, Harrison Metal, and Novel TMT Ventures—and a new board member in Benchmark general partner and early eBay investor Bruce Dunlevie. Benchmark “was the fund that started the e-commerce revolution,” said Smith. He hopes Benchmark can now ignite a physical commerce revolution with Euclid in its portfolio.