Stockland invests $2.5 million in data startup smrtr

Property developer Stockland has invested $2.5 million in smrtr, a data aggregator that holds consumer behavioural information on about 16 million Australians and provider of as-a-service data science tools.

Stockland, which operates shopping centres among its commercial properties, is already a customer of smrtr and plans to work with the data aggregator "to continue developing a suite of data and analytics insights and continue to drive better customer experience."

Smrtr co-founder and CEO Georgie Brooke told iTnews the investment will enable smrtr to “bring new data and products to market and upgrade the user experience around how our data is accessed.”

Smrtr stated the investment will help create an ‘effective and secure data and analytics company, expanding smrtr’s data commercialisation offerings and increasing its pool of data assets.’

Brooke also said smrtr's as-a-service analytics tools would be used by Stockland to extract insights from its own data holdings.

Stockland made reference to the partnership in its recent half-year results, citing digital innovation as being central to producing scalable customer and financial growth.

Some of smrtr's other customers include News Corp, NBN Co, AMP, Miele and Budget Insurance.