Wikipedia:Premise (company)

Premise Data Corporation, also known as Premise, is an American technology company that specializes in market research and other data.

Premise is headquartered in San Francisco and has additional offices in Washington D.C., Seattle, and other cities. It has worked with the United Nations, the World Bank, Unilever, and other global organizations.

History
Premise was founded in 2012 by David Soloff and Joseph Reisinger. Former Facebook senior executive and The Social+Capital Partnership founder Chamath Palihapitiya joined Premise's board in 2014.

In 2015, Valor Equity Partners founder Antonio Gracias, along with Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and president of Harvard University, joined the board of directors.

Maury Blackman, who had formerly led civic tech company Accela, became CEO in 2017.

As of 2022, Premise uses on-demand insights, along with machine learning, to help organizations gather data based on first-hand observation from more than 125 countries. The data is sourced from smartphone users who are paid by submitting photos and qualitative and quantitative data using the company's mobile app.

Disease control and conservation
In 2019, Premise collaborated with USAID to combat the spread of Zika in Colombia by recruiting local citizens to monitor the spread of the disease in communities. The initiative resulted in the destruction of 70,000 mosquito breeding sites as Premise Contributors helped identify mosquito breeding sites in people's homes.

In December 2021, Premise assisted the World Health Organization by doing a survey on the movement for widespread adoption of the malaria vaccine in Nigeria.

Premise began working with Unilever in February 2022 to use on-demand data collection in an effort to halt deforestation. A local network of Contributors ensures Unilever's palm oil supply chain is sustainable and transparent. The supply is tracked from point of origin through the processing of the oil.

Other projects
Premise has also provided data on financial services in Nigeria for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's work.

Premise's other projects include market data for industries such as seasonal shopping, dining, and grocery goods. Premise collaborated with Standard Chartered Bank to create a food price index for Nigeria and Ghana. It has also worked on U.S. military contracts since 2017.

Ukraine data controversy
Controversy arose in 2019 when a Premise app assignment tasked contributors with taking photos of fields and farms in Ukraine, which led one contributor into a field next to a military checkpoint. Premise deleted the assignment after the incident.

During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Premise was further scrutinized after Ukrainian authorities accused the company of collecting data in Ukraine on behalf of the Russian government. After tasks asking Ukrainian contributors to mark buildings were found on the Premise app, some residents also accused the app of marking buildings for Russian airstrikes.

In response, Premise temporarily stopped activities in Ukraine. The company denied the allegations and in a statement, expressed support for Ukraine in the ongoing conflict. Premise also announced it would resume activities in Ukraine with a focus on humanitarian aid.