The Numbers Behind Braze's IPO

Everyone seems to be going public lately, and this week we have another IPO that's coming from our industry: Braze. For those of you who have been in the industry for a while, you may know them as Appboy.

Traditional stock analysts look at company performance when trying to decide whether to invest, but when it comes to apps and mobile service providers, that's not enough.

So the real question is, should you invest in Braze? It's a trick question because I'm not a financial advisor, so the answer is "if you want to", but... I can offer some data to help you understand Braze a bit better.

Let's start with some stats and then continue to my thoughts on this one:

• What's Braze? A service that helps companies bring users back into their mobile apps using push notifications and email using rules around behavior. Braze has an SDK (Software Developer Kit), which app owners drop in their app, and they can then attempt to engage users by talking to them at the best time. It's a bit more complicated, but this should be the gist.
• How popular is it? 4,329 apps and games have Braze's SDK installed.
• Who's using it? A lot of big names, including HBO, McDonald's, Etsy, Walmart, Instacart, Klarna, and many other household names. According to our estimates, apps that use Braze were downloaded more than 70M times in the U.S. in the last 30 days.
• How long have they been using it? Many popular apps added Braze many years ago, but more seem to be onboarding. Etsy, for example, added Braze's SDK five years ago. ESPN a year ago, and McDonald's a few months ago.
• How fast is it growing? In the last year, more than 1,300 apps and games started using Braze,
• What's churn like? In the last year, 257 apps and games stopped using the Braze SDK. The list includes a few recognizable names but not as recognizable as those who joined.
• Is it the most popular choice? No. Braze has a star-studded client list, but competitors like Airship (which used to be called Urban Airship) and Adobe have a larger install base. There are also quite a few small competitors in this market.

These stats come directly from our proprietary SDK and App Intelligence data sets, which you can access, too, for lead generation + qualification, market research, and competitive intelligence here.

What I see in these stats is a lot of opportunity. Growth seems to be strong, and when consolidation starts, and that's inevitable, there are enough smaller players that Braze can acquire with what it earns with its IPO money.