TrendKite Raises Funds, Gets New CEO

Media monitoring firm TrendKite has closed a $3.2m Series A round of funding, which it will invest in its big data processing infrastructure, and expansion of its sales team. The firm has also appointed former Dachis Group CTO Erik Huddleston as Chief Executive Officer.

Austin, TX-based TrendKite uses big data analytics for real-time detection of brand-relevant news, and provides qualitative analysis of brands and their competitors, as well as industry trends. Clients are offered understanding of their overall press coverage, along with insights and predictive analytics concerning marcoms ROI.

Huddleston (pictured) joins founders AJ Bruno and Patrick Brannen, who continue to serve as President and CTO respectively, and former CEO Matt Allison who is now Chief Product Officer. Most recently, Huddleston served as CTO and EVP Product at social media analytics firm Dachis Group, prior to the firm's sale to social media management specialist Sprinklr earlier in the year. Previously, he was CTO at Inovis, founded BetweenMarkets, was Chief Architect at eCustomers, and held senior roles at i2 Technologies and Smart Technologies.

TrendKite's new funding has been led by Mercury Fund and Silverton Partners, adding to the $1.2m seed round last year. Huddleston comments: 'I joined TrendKite because I saw the opportunity to apply big data analytics to an industry where innovation no longer occurred. This round of funding will allow TrendKite to bring a radically different approach to media monitoring, measurement and reporting, and I couldn't think of better partners to help capitalize on that opportunity than Mercury Fund and Silverton Partners.'

Web site: www.trendkite.com .