Bluestone Equity Partners Invests in Qloo, the Leading AI Platform for Consumer Preferences

Investment to help support planned rollout of Qloo’s first self-service interface, continued expansion into new verticals, including sports

Qloo to leverage Bluestone Equity’s deep operating expertise and global network in Sports, Media & Entertainment to help fuel ongoing expansion

Bluestone Equity Partners ("Bluestone"), the institutionally-backed global private equity firm focused on the Sports, Media & Entertainment industry, today announced a $20 million growth investment in Qloo, the leading Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) platform for consumer tastes and preferences.

Headquartered in New York City, Qloo operates a sophisticated AI-powered intelligence engine, known as Taste AI, composed of highly accurate behavioral data detailing how consumers around the globe interact with more than half a billion lifestyle entities including brands, media, sports, live events, film, travel, dining, and more. For over a decade, Qloo has curated this unmatched data set and developed an applied-AI technology to help companies better understand and predict consumer preferences, while preserving customer privacy.

Qloo’s proprietary AI models are capable of identifying trillions of connections in milliseconds, assisting businesses small and large – from local businesses to some of the world’s largest and most well-known brands – to make better decisions and personalize customer experiences in real time, without using personally identifiable information. Through a flexible Application Programming Interface (“API”), and soon a no-code self-service interface, Qloo democratizes these AI-driven recommendations, enabling a wide variety of businesses across industries and around the world, to understand and anticipate the interests of customers in order to drive revenue through product innovation and enhanced customer engagement. Qloo services some of the leading companies in the world, including Netflix, Starbucks, Universal Music Group, PepsiCo, JCDecaux, Tablet Hotels, Michelin, and Ticketmaster.

“Qloo’s one-of-a-kind AI effectively and ethically generates added-value for virtually any consumer-facing business,” said Bobby Sharma, Bluestone’s Founder & Managing Partner. “It turns vast troves of underutilized existing company data into immediately impactful consumer insights and actionable opportunities, maximizing revenue opportunities at scale. We are excited to help bring this amazing technology deeper into the global Sports, Media and Entertainment industry and its unmatched breadth and depth of meaningful touchpoints with passionate consumers and viewers.”

“For more than a decade, Qloo has been the leader in deploying cutting-edge AI technologies on our unparalleled, privacy-centric cultural entity and behavioral databases to reveal the intricacies of consumer tastes and preferences,” said Alex Elias, Co-Founder and CEO of Qloo. “Qloo’s Taste AI has unlocked measurable value for numerous Fortune 500 brands, including recently with companies in the sports, entertainment, and live events sectors. We believe there is tremendous opportunity for Qloo to provide further value to these industries and are confident we will be able to do so with Bluestone’s partnership. Qloo will utilize this opportunistic investment for market expansion, launching a new self-service insights platform, building out our team, and strategically acquiring novel data sources and technologies that enhance our core Taste AI technology.”

Qloo marks the fourth investment for Bluestone from its inaugural $300 million fund launched in a single closing during the first quarter of 2023. Bluestone is differentiated within Sports, Media & Entertainment private equity through its combination of blue-chip industry operating and investment experience, expansive international network, institutional capital base, and collaborative synergistic approach with portfolio companies.

About Bluestone Equity

Headquartered in New York City, Bluestone Equity Partners is a private equity firm harnessing a unique combination of blue-chip business and investing experience, coupled with deep industry ties, to forge highly strategic capital partnerships with established Sports, Media & Entertainment businesses and properties. Led by Founder & Managing Partner Bobby Sharma, Bluestone strives to partner with exceptional management teams and rights holders seeking growth and scale on a global basis.

For more information, visit www.bluestoneequity.com and @bluestoneequity on LinkedIn.

About Qloo

Qloo is the leading AI company demystifying the intricacies of global consumer tastes and preferences. The company operates one of the world’s most robust catalogs of notable people, places, things, and interests, coupled with a consumer behavior and sentiment database containing more than 10 trillion unique signals and zero Personally Identifiable Information (PII). By leveraging cutting-edge AI models, Qloo unlocks the value of these databases to understand and predict audiences’ interests and affinities with unrivaled accuracy. Since 2012, Qloo’s award-winning Taste AI technology has helped multinational companies — including Netflix, Starbucks, JCDecaux, and Michelin — drive growth by powering personalized customer experiences and large language models, superior recommendations, data-driven marketing strategies, and advanced audience intelligence. Qloo is the parent company of TasteDive, a cultural recommendation engine and social community that allows users to discover what to watch, read, listen to, and play based on their existing unique preferences.

Visit www.qloo.com to learn more.

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