Erik Häggblom (Panama, 1974) and Jon Adolfsson (Sweden, 1977) plant trees with data they collect from the Internet.
It's not any joke.
They do it through their application: Tribaldata.
Launched in June, the app asks for the client's consent to install a
cookie
in the browser.
Subsequently, it requests your personal data, tastes and information related to the mobile device.
With this, an anonymous card or profile is generated.
Tribaldata brings together the information, creates small
tribes
(people with the same interests) and offers them to advertisers through programmatic purchasing systems (a way to acquire space for online advertising in an automated way).
The objective is for companies to be able to send consumers the advertising that best suits their interests.
And the trees?
Through the application, as long as the valid card is kept, points are generated that will be used to reforest a village in Madagascar.
It all started in 2018, when Häggblom was CEO of Carat Spain (one of the main media agencies).
At that time, he saw a business opportunity between the data we leave on the web and the business need for increasingly sharper profiles.
When someone wants to access certain content, they consent to the handling of their information.
Then one company sells that data to another that wants to advertise.
“The user is not part of the value chain and is not aware of how far their consent has been stretched.
But what would happen if we changed the nature of that pact and gave the consumer something in return? ”, Highlights Häggblom, now CEO of Tribaldata.
The business
Tribaldata has more than 4,200 registered users.
It closed its first round of financing at the end of 2019, in which it raised 500,000 euros that came from various
business angels
.
To this sum is added a participative loan from Enisa for 125,000 euros.
The firm dedicates 40% of the income obtained from the sale of the data it collects to Eden Reforestation Projects, an NGO that works in developing countries to rebuild natural landscapes.
"We keep only 5% and the rest is distributed in the chain of programmatic sales," says the CEO.
"From the beginning we agreed that the project should have an environmental purpose," says Adolfsson, co-founder of the company that aims to reach 150,000 users by the middle of next year.
Tribaldata users have contributed to planting more than 7,000 trees.
"Our goal is that in five years 400 million have been planted, the equivalent of the carbon footprint of 25 million people in Spain", highlights Häggblom.
"With Tribaldata we want the user to be aware of the value of their data and that it can have an impact," adds Adolfsson.
With the pandemic and an economic landscape that disrupts all sectors, including marketing and advertising, the creators of the application are not daunted.
"There are companies that are being greatly affected by the health crisis, but there are others that are pushing their online sales channel forward," says Häggblom.
In 2021 they will seek to take the app beyond the Spanish borders.
"Europe is our natural market for expansion," concludes Häggblom.
