Shinhan Securities said on Oct. 24 that it executed a strategic investment in Sensor Tower, a leading provider of mobile and digital market intelligence, in September.
Founded in San Francisco in 2013, Sensor Tower supplies enterprise clients with insights on digital market trends, competitor activity and user behavior based on proprietary, high-quality datasets and AI/machine-learning analytics. The company serves more than 2,500 global customers, including Microsoft, Google, Meta and Samsung, and has grown rapidly in recent years through sustained innovation and an acquisitive strategy.
Sensor Tower expanded into digital advertising intelligence with the 2021 acquisition of Pathmatics and strengthened its leadership in mobile app market intelligence by acquiring data.ai (formerly App Annie) in 2024. This year the company made strategic moves into console gaming and launched a web platform, positioning itself as a cross-platform leader across mobile, desktop, web and console ecosystems. Sensor Tower reported a five-year compound annual revenue growth rate of about 60% while maintaining industry-leading profitability.
Shinhan Securities will join existing backers including Riverwood Capital, Paramark Ventures and Bain Capital Credit in supporting Sensor Tower’s next-stage growth. Shinhan said its investment will be used to accelerate product innovation, R&D and the advancement of AI technologies.
Oliver Yeh, co-founder and CEO of Sensor Tower, said the partnership with Shinhan will enable the company to deliver more precise and actionable digital insights to major global brands, game and app developers, and institutional investors. He added that the funding will help deepen generative-AI–based analytics capabilities and evolve the platform to better assess AI’s impact across the digital economy.
Sensor Tower projects that worldwide consumer time spent in mobile apps will exceed 4.3 trillion hours in 2025 and that in-app spending will top $160 billion. The company expects generative-AI chatbots such as ChatGPT and Gemini to drive non-game app spend past game app spend for the first time, and forecasts the digital advertising market to grow about 12% year-on-year with impressions rising roughly 8%.
A Shinhan Securities spokesperson said Sensor Tower’s data and analytics leadership aligns with Shinhan’s global digital-transition investment strategy, noting that in the AI era data value is defined by depth, timeliness and usability. The spokesperson expressed confidence in Sensor Tower’s long-term growth prospects based on its unique data assets and global network.
Shinhan Securities has been increasing investments in global AI and digital companies, having previously invested in GPU cloud provider Lambda, U.S. ad-tech firm Moloco and data-center automation company Bright Machines.
