LocateAI

Market position

Locate competes in retail location intelligence and site selection alongside companies such as Placer.ai, SafeGraph, SiteZeus, IdealSpot, PiinPoint, Pathr.ai, Localize and other property-analytics vendors, differentiating by pairing analytics with brokerage execution. It reports serving 200+ multi-unit brands and a reported 15% sales increase for leasing clients.

Locate positions itself as the only brokerage that owns both proprietary AI site-selection models and full-service brokerage execution in one team, contrasting itself with traditional brokers that sell relationships and software vendors that sell dashboards. Its models are described as weighing 1,100+ variables per site and being calibrated to each brand's own performance data, and it describes itself as the first tech-enabled brokerage in the retail real estate industry.

Technology

Proprietary machine learning and geospatial models trained on a data lake of retail performance and location data, analyzing 1,100+ variables per site including foot traffic density, psychographic match, competitor saturation, co-tenancy affinity, daytime population, median household income alignment, drive-time accessibility, trade area overlap, retail gravity and category spending. The models produce site scores, year-one revenue forecasts using analog stores, cannibalization estimates and market-level rankings, and incorporate mobile location and point-of-interest data.

Go-to-market

The company sells directly to multi-unit and franchise brands through its brokerage and advisory team, supported by client success analysts, directors of real estate and data scientists. Demand generation includes SEO-oriented educational content and industry guides, customer spotlight case studies, and presence at retail real estate industry events such as the ICSC conference.

Multi-unit and franchise retail and restaurant brands expanding their physical footprint, from emerging concepts opening their next few locations to established national brands managing an expansion pipeline, as well as landlords and brokers.

Geography

Headquartered in San Francisco, California, with coverage of U.S. retail markets; its market roadmap ranks every U.S. market, and site pipeline examples center on Texas, California and other domestic metros.

History

The company was founded in 2014 in San Francisco and took part in the Techstars Seattle accelerator in 2014. It raised venture funding through a Series A stage, with a round reported in November 2019. By 2021-2022 it was publishing customer case studies with multi-unit brands including Zoup! Eatery, Wingers, Fit Body Bootcamp and CBD Kratom, exhibiting at the ICSC conference in Las Vegas in May 2022, and adding real estate leadership such as a Director of Real Estate in October 2021. By 2023 it reported implementing mobile-data-driven site selection for more than 100 retail brands, and by 2026 its site described 200+ multi-unit brands using its services.