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Social media monitoring startup Earshot announced $1.7 million in funding on Monday from investors based in Champaign, Silicon Valley and Seattle.
Combining social media conversations with real-time location data, Earshot detects customer acquisition opportunities for clients across retail, entertainment and hospitality. While many social listening services connect companies with existing fans, Earshot emphasizes context and timeliness, enabling brands to identify people who aren’t already talking about them.
“Social media represents a new channel for customer discovery as much as it does for customer service,” Earshot Founder and CEO David Rush said in a press statement. “By using location as the first of many filters, we can help clients quickly sift through the noise to identify and connect with people in the midst of an experience that’s relevant to their brand – whether they’re a current customer or not.”
The seed funding comes from Champaign-based Serra Ventures, Point B Capital in Seattle and California’s Mohr Davidow Ventures, TriplePoint Ventures and Birchmere Ventures, and will help accelerate Earshot’s product development, research and development and sales and marketing.
Earshot’s clients include the Chicago White Sox, Nissan and IBM.
