Amsterdam-based proptech B2B SaaS startup, Getplace.io, has raised an investment from Antler to help brick-and-mortar SM’s all over the world find better locations for their new stores. Now the company, founded by Denis Chernobaev and Sergey Shсherbak in the beginning of 2023, is starting its operations in the United Kingdom.

Brick-and-mortar stores remain an important channel for sales even after the drop in the number of stores during the Covid-pandemic in 2020. In 2021, U.S retailers reported twice as many store openings as closings. When considering opening a physical store there is one thing above all that affects the success: location. An industry saying suggests the three most important factors for retail success are: 1) location, 2) location, 3) location.

However, with the lack of available data, deciding a new location for your store is more of an art than science. Companies have to consider a list of things including accessibility, visibility, traffic, competition, neighbors, and location costs. It is virtually impossible to do this effectively without having excessive amounts of data and the processing power to analyse it. While enterprises and big chains might have the resources for that, small and medium size businesses are going into the process practically blind.

Now, Getplace.io is introducing new tools that bring a totally new level of visibility into scouting for a new store location. Going forward the company aims to provide comprehensive tools for data-driven decision making, and equip small and medium sized companies with the insights they would normally not have access to.

“For the past six years of my life, I was driving a fast-growing food-tech startup as a member of the leadership team. We opened more than 900 stores in 16 countries and gained a lot of experience in finding the best location for the new stores. Now, with Getplace.io, we want to empower these other small and medium sized businesses to make more strategic data-driven decisions that set them up for success right from the beginning”, explains Denis Chernobaev, Getplace.io Co-Founder and CEO.

To provide the most comprehensive data for its customers, Getplace.io combines different data-sets including footfall, vehicle traffic, demographics, financial insights, competition level and many others. They already have two products on the market. The first one is focusing on comparing the opportunities between different locations the business is already considering, and the second is a heatmap of pedestrian traffic in the UK.

With the funding from Antler, Getplace.io is entering the UK market and expanding its product selection. “The UK was selected as our first market given its size and one of the founders being located there. We are already looking into expanding to other European markets”, says Chernobaev. 

“The Getplace.io team brings together a great combination of deep industry knowledge, an agile ‘can do’ mentality, and amazing technical capabilities. Antler is pleased to be the first investor in the company that empowers traditional brick and mortar store owners with new age online tools 

that leverage vast amounts of data to expand their business to today’s market demands”, says Ronald Jan Schuurs, Partner at Antler.