Appen, a provider of high-quality training data for organizations that build effective AI systems at scale, announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quadrant, a provider of blockchain-powered mobile location data, Point-of-Interest data, and compliance services.

With the acquisition, Quadrant’s Geolancer product gains access to 1M+ users.

Quadrant leverages blockchain technology across all of its services. Its newest product, Geolancer, is a location data platform that leverages a global crowd of Geolancers to collect and verify data in the physical world (such as POI and location metadata).

This data is sought after by leading mapping companies, delivery and courier services, ridesharing applications, e-commerce sites, and more. Users — Geolancers — are then rewarded with EQUAD cryptocurrency for the data they record.

Geolancer has conducted multiple campaigns since May, where users recorded 180,000+ POI data points in seven countries across Southeast Asia.

With the acquisition, Geolancer will be rolled out in phases over the next few months to Appen’s more than 1 million contractors in over 170 countries, experienced in recording and annotating data.

Appen is a leader in the development of high-quality, human-annotated datasets for machine learning and artificial intelligence. Headquartered in Sydney and publicly listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, it has over 1,000 employees in nine offices globally. Its clients include leading technology companies.

“The acquisition means Geolancer will become the definitive POI platform in the data industry, and potentially one of the most widely used blockchain projects in the world with access to over 1M user. Getting this many new people on board represents a huge opportunity for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry on the road to becoming a mainstream phenomenon.”

– Mike Davie, CEO of Quadrant