As far as startup funding is concerned, this week just keeps getting better. Networked Insights, a Chicago-based data analytics company, announced on Friday morning that it has raised $30 million in funding.
The company will use the funding to expand its capabilities in deep learning and artificial intelligence and to fuel further expansion according to a release.
Add that to the $10 million announcement from Mediafly on Wednesday and CloudCraze's $20 million round on Thursday, and January's off to a great start indeed.
Sands Light Capital and the Cherng Family Trust led Networked Insights' round. Goldman Sachs and American Family Ventures also participated. According to Crain’s, both leading funds have ties to the food and beverage industry.
“We are pleased to bring on additional strategic investors who have strong entrepreneurial backgrounds as founders to help us develop into our next growth phase," said CEO Dan Neely in a statement. "As global leaders in the CPG industry, they provide a deep understanding of how to use customer data strategically, which will help us develop products that are more immediately useful to consumer brands."
Networked Insights’ core product is the Kairos analytics platform, which taps into social media channels to give companies a real-time window into the conversations their target audiences are having. The platform then analyzes those conversations to detect trends that will help marketers engage consumers with the right content at the right time.
According to the company’s press materials, Kairos analyzes 560 million social posts daily. Its dashboards also let brands monitor ongoing conversations to spot changes in consumer sentiment.
CEO and founder Dan Neely told Crain’s that Networked Insights’ business has “grown [sixfold] in the past two years,” and that he expects to add between 35 and 40 new employees this year, bringing the company’s total headcount close to 120.
VP of Marketing Richard Sharp said the company will focus a lot of its hiring efforts in Chicago on new software engineers and Big Data talent. Networked Insights will also be expanding its sales team.
Networked Insights is one of a handful of Chicago Big Data companies that has experienced massive traction in the past few years. Civis Analytics, which was founded in 2013, raised $22 million only two months ago, and DRIVIN has raised $24 million since its 2015 launch. Also, at the end of 2015, Forbes named Uptake the year’s hottest startup, beating companies like Slack and Uber.
Image via Networked Insights.
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