Funds for UK Facial Recognition Specialist

London-based Realeyes, which measures facial expressions and quantifies people's emotional reactions through standard video devices such as webcams and in-store cameras, has completed a $3.2m round of investment.

Billed as 'The Google of Emotions', the firm says it is moving beyond panel-based testing to gather emotional feedback from social media, mobile apps and in-store situations, with a number of product launches coming soon in the area of social video. Realeyes' analytics platform is used by companies including Nielsen, Ipsos and Toluna.

The latest, series A investment round includes money from Entrepreneurs Fund and SmartCap, and brings total financing to more than $4.6m. Realeyes says the funds will help advance its technology platform towards 'Big Data' applications, and will enable it to quadruple its international sales force and move its US offices from Boston to New York.

CEO Mihkel Jäätma (pictured) says emotion measurement 'solves the key problem in research - to provide true subconscious feedback. Scientists have shown over 90% of human behaviour and decision making is driven by the subconscious; yet over 90% of current research and feedback is based on conscious self-reporting. This massive imbalance is dissipating as it's now easier to record emotions via webcams than having people fill in surveys.'

The company is online at www.realeyesit.com .