AI powered news analysis firm Signal Media has just closed a mammoth $16m (£12m) Series B round from a group of six investors.
The round was led by VC fund GMG Ventures and MMC Ventures. Frontline, Hearst Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures and LocalGlobe also contributed.
London-based Signal Media uses machine learning to shift through media content and provide snippets to executives. The tech extracts insight from over 2.8m global online, print, television, radio and regulatory sources, and can translate it into over 100 languages from across 200 markets.
David Benigson, Signal’s CEO and founder, commented: “We have a system that’s constantly evolving and getting smarter and more intuitive for our customers as they use it
“Most businesses above a certain size already have a business intelligence tool that enables them to analyse their internal data in considerable depth. Our objective is to provide senior leaders with as much clarity and transparency about what’s happening outside of their organization as they have inside it,” he added.
Customers can use the platform to build their own personalised conversations, but the initial focus is on reputation management for PR and communications. The firm is now expanding into risk management for tax and compliance, as well as business development in financial and legal services.
Signal now counts 200 clients in its portfolio, including Allen & Overy, Amnesty International, British Airways, E.ON, TalkTalk, Thomas Cook and Whitbread. among many other household names.
Signal raised $1.8m back in April 2015, followed by a £5.8m Series A round in December 2016.
This latest investment will help the company to expand further into the US. The firm’s headcount has already doubled to almost 100 people in a year.
Alan Hudson, founder and managing partner at GMG Ventures, explained why they backed the firm: “Signal’s sophisticated A.I. engine is changing how people consume news and information and is redefining how businesses and organisations leverage insight as part of their long term strategy,
“Signal has a focused management team who we believe are going to win in this emerging space. We are delighted to lead this new investment round alongside world-class investors.”
Simon Menashy, partner at MMC Ventures, added that the firm is delighted to be increasing its investment and backing Signal’s next phase of growth.