Arity, the mobility data subsidiary of insurer Allstate, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the remaining ownership interest in Replica, a company that models how people travel for public agencies and urban planners. Arity announced the deal from Chicago on November 3, 2026.
The price was not disclosed, and neither was the size of the stake Arity already holds or when it bought it. The transaction is expected to close in 2026, subject to customary conditions.
Replica will sit alongside INRIX, the traffic data company Arity has already finished buying. Arity said the three businesses together cover how people travel, how transport networks perform and how people drive.
What Replica built
Replica started as a product inside Sidewalk Labs, the urban technology company owned by Google's parent Alphabet, and was spun out as a standalone company in September 2019, Kansas City outlet Startland News reported at the time. It set up headquarters in Kansas City, with its main engineering office in San Francisco. Nick Bowden, a co-founder, was its chief executive at the spinout and is now its president.
The company applies machine learning models to large datasets to create what it calls replicas: synthetic populations that mirror travel and economic patterns in a region without exposing data about any individual. Customers include state transport departments, regional planning bodies and city budget offices, according to Replica's 2021 funding announcement. It said its data helped New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority during the Covid-19 pandemic and helped the Sacramento Area Council of Governments analyse vehicle miles travelled.
In its 2021 announcement, Replica said it runs large-scale simulations using its own synthetic populations and behaviour models, so that planners can study how a region moves and spends without tracking any real person. Early work at the time of the spinout covered Kansas City, Portland and Chicago, according to Startland News.
Arity said Replica's tools help customers understand travel patterns, anticipate changes and test the likely effects of decisions, and support compliance with federal reporting rules.
“Replica was founded on the belief that better decisions start with understanding how people actually live, work, and move through their communities.”
The funding
Replica left Sidewalk Labs with $11 million in Series A funding from Innovation Endeavors, Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund and Kansas City's Firebrand Ventures, Startland News reported in 2019.
In April 2021 it announced a $41 million Series B round led by Founders Fund, with Innovation Endeavors, Sidewalk Labs, the Rise of the Rest fund and Firebrand also taking part. That brings its reported funding to about $52 million. Trae Stephens, a partner at Founders Fund, said at the time that planners and policymakers make better decisions when they have current, relevant data.
Why Arity is buying
Arity was founded in 2016 and is based in Chicago. It turns driving data gathered from what it says are trillions of miles into products for insurers, brands and public-sector clients, covering pricing, risk, marketing and safety.
Buying INRIX gave Arity data on how road networks perform. Replica adds what Arity called a human and multimodal dimension: a view of how people travel across different modes of transport, not only by car. Arity said the combination is aimed at businesses, public agencies and transport consultants deciding on planning, safety and investment.
Gary Hallgren, Arity's president, said transport intelligence has been fragmented and that combining Arity, INRIX and Replica gives customers a fuller picture of mobility. Bowden said joining Arity and INRIX would let Replica apply its understanding of how people live, work and move to a much wider view of transportation.
The deal also fits Allstate's wider spending on data, analytics and mobility intelligence, Arity said. The release did not say whether Replica's brand, staff or leadership will change after closing.
What comes next
Arity said the deal advances the plan it set out when it completed the INRIX purchase: that transportation is interconnected and the data describing it should be too. Neither side said how many people Replica employs, whether its Kansas City headquarters will remain, or how Replica's public-sector contracts will be handled under Allstate ownership.
