Appen (company)

Appen Limited (formerly known as Appen Butler Hill) is a

publicly traded data company listed on the Australian Securities
Appen Limited
Exchange (ASX) under the code APX.[2] Type Public
Traded as ASX: APX (https://
Appen provides or improves data used for the development of
www2.asx.com.a
machine learning and artificial intelligence products. Data types
u/markets/compa
include speech and natural language data, image and video data,
ny/APX)
text and alphanumeric data and relevance data to improve search
S&P/ASX 200
and social media engines.[3]
component
Industry Artificial
Locations intelligence
Founded 1996
The company's global headquarters is in Chatswood, New South
Wales, 10 kilometres north of the central business district of Founder Julie Vonwiller 
Sydney, Australia. The United States headquarters is in Kirkland, Headquarters Chatswood, New
Washington, a suburb of Seattle, and there are also US offices in South Wales,
San Francisco, California and Detroit, Michigan. Appen also has Australia
offices in Beijing, China; Cavite, Philippines; Exeter, England; and
Area served Worldwide
Tokyo, Japan.[3]
Key people Chris Vonwiller
(Chairman)
Operations Armario Villarosa
(Co-Founder)
At the end of 2017, revenues were AUD 166.6 million and the
company had more than 350 full-time employees and over Revenue A$599.9 million
1,000,000 approved flexible workers in the Appen crowd.[4][5] (2020)
Tasks are performed in more than 180 languages and 130 Number of 1125 (2020)
countries.[6] employees
Website appen.com (http
Most of the company's revenues are earned offshore and clients s://appen.com)
include eight of the top ten largest technology companies.[7][8][9] Footnotes / references
[1]
Appen's customers use machine learning for a variety of use cases
including automatic speech recognition (ASR), computer vision,
increasing conversions in eCommerce, delivering more meaningful and personalized advertising, enhancing
social media feeds or improving customer service capabilities with tools like chatbots and virtual
assistants.[10]

For machines to demonstrate artificial intelligence, they need to be programmed with human-quality
training data that helps them learn.[11]

History
Appen was founded in Sydney in 1996 by linguist Dr. Julie Vonwiller.[12][13] She was joined by her
husband Chris Vonwiller who left his job at Telstra in 2000 to join Appen full-time and is currently Non-
Executive Chairman of Appen.[6][14]

In 2011, Appen merged with the Butler Hill Group, which was based in Ridgefield, Connecticut and
Seattle, Washington and originally founded by Lisa Braden-Harder in 1993.[15] Lisa was a member of the
pioneering team in grammar checking technology at the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center before the
Butler Hill Group and stayed on as CEO until 2015.[16] After the merger, the combined business became
Appen Butler Hill and expanded its business scope to include language resources, search and text.[17]

In 2012, Appen acquired Wikman Remer, a firm based in San Rafael, California, which developed tools
and platforms for employee engagement, online moderation and curation.[18]

Appen Butler Hill was re-branded as Appen in 2013, and it went public on the ASX on January 7, 2015,
led by Lisa Braden-Harder.[19]

In July 2015 Mark Brayan joined Appen as CEO until January 8th, 2023. As of January 9th, 2023
Armughan Ahmad joined as CEO and President. [28] (https://www.eagletribune.com/region/newly-appoint
ed-appen-ceo-and-president-to-accelerate-next-wave-of-enterprise-ai-adoption/article_c2f6ff87-5eb7-5b40-
8ae8-2d80c25bebd7.htm)

In October 2016 Appen acquired a UK based transcription services company called Mendip Media Group
(MMG)[20][21]

Appen also acquired Leapforce in November 2017 for U.S. $80M, adding additional capabilities in search
relevance and growing its crowd to over 1,000,000 workers.[22][23]

Appen acquired data annotation company called Leapforce in 2017.[24] Appen acquired Figure Eight in
2019.[25][26] In 2021,Appen announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quadrant, a global
leader in mobile location data, Point-of-Interest data, and corresponding compliance services.[27]

Appen Releases State of AI Automotive Report. [28]

External links
Official Website (https://appen.com/)

References
1. Appen Limited (23 February 2021). "Appen 2020 Annual Report" (https://resources.appen.co
m/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Appen-2020-Annual-Report.pdf) (PDF). Archived (https://we
b.archive.org/web/20210420110228/https://resources.appen.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/
02/Appen-2020-Annual-Report.pdf) (PDF) from the original on 2021-04-20. Retrieved 7 May
2021.
2. "Share Price & Information - ASX" (https://www.asx.com.au/asx/share-price-research/compa
ny/APX). www.asx.com.au. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
3. "Appen Outperforms in 2017, Breaks Through Billion Dollar Valuation | Slator" (https://slator.
com/financial-results/appen-outperforms-in-2017-breaks-through-billion-dollar-valuation/).
Slator. 2018-02-23. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
4. Tan, Oliver. "How Does A Machine Learn?" (https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/
2017/05/02/how-does-a-machine-learn/#66b2e9b37441). Forbes. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
 5. "Building Culture in Language Services Companies: An interview with Mark Brayan, CEO of
Appen" (https://www.adaptiveglobalization.com/blog/2018/02/building-culture-in-language-s
ervices-companies-an-interview-with-mark-brayan-ceo-of-appen). Retrieved 2018-07-06.
6. "Appen 2017 Annual Report" (https://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20180417/pdf/43t8hcq4yx8yc
c.pdf) (PDF). Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). April 17, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
7. "Appen rides the rise of machine learning" (https://www.afr.com/technology/appen-rides-the-r
ise-of-machine-learning-20170524-gwbu8g). Financial Review. 2017-05-26. Retrieved
2018-07-06.
8. "Thomson Reuters names the world's top 100 technology companies" (https://www.thomson
reuters.com/en/press-releases/2018/january/thomson-reuters-names-the-worlds-top-100-tec
hnology-companies.html). Retrieved 2018-07-06.
9. "Mid-market awards finalist preview: Pronto Software, Appen, ITAC Services, Longwarry
Food Park vie for $50-$100 million category" (http://www.afr.com/business/small-business/m
idmarket-awards-finalist-preview-pronto-software-appen-itac-services-longwarry-food-park-v
ie-for-50100-million-category-20140811-jyqzr). Financial Review. 2014-08-14. Retrieved
2018-07-06.
10. Ireland, Kathy (May 12, 2017). "Enhancing the eCommerce Shopping Experience" (https://w
ww.youtube.com/watch?v=u2ARWLPvnws). Worldwide Business with Kathy Ireland.
Retrieved 6 July 2018.
11. "Is it time to buy AI company Appen? - Fairmont Equities" (https://fairmontequities.com/is-it-ti
me-to-buy-ai-company-appen/.). Fairmont Equities. 2018-04-19. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
12. "Appen shares up 6 per cent, CEO tips search and self-driving cars as future growth drivers"
(http://www.afr.com/technology/appen-shares-up-218-per-cent-in-14-months-buoyed-by-stro
ng-results-20160228-gn61x4). Financial Review. 2016-02-29. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
13. "Julie Vonwiller: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg" (https://www.bloomberg.com/re
search/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=100765170&privcapId=60270194).
www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
14. "Profit up 28 per cent at web search specialist Appen" (http://www.afr.com/technology/profit-u
p-28-per-cent-at-web-search-specialist-appen-20150827-gj9cxi). Financial Review. 2015-
08-28. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
15. "APX.AU Company Profile & Executives - Appen Ltd. - Wall Street Journal" (https://quotes.w
sj.com/AU/XASX/APX/company-people/executive-profile/120553142). quotes.wsj.com.
Retrieved 2018-07-06.
16. "Butler Hill Group completes merger with Appen, Inc" (http://www.cartermorse.com/press-roo
m/news-1/859-butler-hill-group-completes-merger-with-appen-inc). www.cartermorse.com.
Retrieved 2018-07-06.
17. "Lisa Braden Harder" (https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-braden-harder-374624/.). LinkedIn.
July 6, 2018. Retrieved July 6, 2018.
18. "Appen and Butler Hill Merge Operations To Create Global Leader in Linguistic Solutions |
Technology Transactions" (https://web.archive.org/web/20181126173336/http://tmt-transacti
ons.com/appen-and-butler-hill-merge-operations-to-create-global-leader-in-linguistic-solutio
ns/). tmt-transactions.com. Archived from the original (http://tmt-transactions.com/appen-and-
butler-hill-merge-operations-to-create-global-leader-in-linguistic-solutions) on 2018-11-26.
Retrieved 2018-07-06.
19. "Introducing Social Instinct: Provider of Social Media Solutions Blends Multilingual Human
Moderation with Innovative Technology" (https://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/1/prweb103
61091.htm). PRWeb. Retrieved 2018-07-06.
20. Editorial, Reuters. "${Instrument_CompanyName} ${Instrument_Ric} People | Reuters.com"
(https://www.reuters.com/finance/stocks/company-officers/APX.AX). U.S. Retrieved
2018-07-06. {{cite web}}: |first= has generic name (help)
21. Bullock, Lara (2016-10-10). "Tech company acquires transcription service provider" (https://
www.lawyersweekly.com.au/deals/19728-tech-company-acquires-transcription-service-provi
der). Retrieved 2018-07-06.
22. "Appen announcse strategic UK acquisition" (https://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au/archives/fi
nance_news_network124534.html). Finance News Network. 2016-10-03. Retrieved
2018-07-06.
23. "Appen to acquire new acquisitions for US$80m" (https://www.finnewsnetwork.com.au/archi
ves/finance_news_network168042.html). Finance News Network. 2017-11-29. Retrieved
2018-07-06.
24. "Appen acquires Figure Eight for up to $300M, bringing two data annotation companies
together" (http://social.techcrunch.com/2019/03/10/appen-acquires-figure-eight/).
TechCrunch. 10 March 2019. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
25. April 2019, 23rd (23 April 2019). "Figure Eight acquired by Appen" (https://www.bankingtech.
com/2019/04/figure-eight-acquired-by-appen/). FinTech Futures. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
26. "Australia – AI and machine learning platform Appen acquires Figure Eight" (https://www2.st
affingindustry.com/row/Editorial/Daily-News/Australia-AI-and-machine-learning-platform-Ap
pen-acquires-Figure-Eight-49299). www2.staffingindustry.com. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
27. "Appen to Acquire Quadrant to Expand Mobile-Location Based Data Collection Offering" (htt
ps://appen.com/press-release/appen-to-acquire-quadrant/?amp). 25 August 2021.
28. "Appen Releases State of AI Automotive Report" (https://www.businesswire.com/news/hom
e/20230125005487/en/Appen-Releases-State-of-AI-Automotive-Report). 25 January 2023.

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