Potloc Adds to Series A Funding, Opens in New York

In Canada, sampling platform Potloc has raised a further $7m add-on to its Series A funding round, now totalling $20m, which it will use to further develop and expand the global reach of its solution. The firm has also expanded to the US, with the opening of an office in New York.

Founded in 2014, Montreal-headquartered Potloc - which also has offices in Toronto; Paris, France; and Geneva, Switzerland - uses the targeting capabilities of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, to survey precisely defined and hard-to-reach audiences. The firm's potential available surveying audience is more than 3.8 million social media users worldwide, which Potloc says allows it to sample specific niches based on detailed demographics, locations, purchasing behavior and other criteria.

Its new office is led by long-time software industry exec Mickael Seyman (pictured), as Country Head. He was previously President of Sales at HR automation specialist Hibob, before which, he spent four years at HR service delivery and HR document management platform People Doc, where he latterly served as Head of Enterprise Sales when the firm was acquired by Ultimate Software. Commenting on the appointment, Potloc co-founder and CEO Rodolphe Barrere said that Seyman's experience and track record helping start-ups open new markets and build local sales and support teams, will be instrumental in running the US-based operation.

Seyman joins as the company closes its run-on Series A funding round, led by existing investors Cap Horn, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, EcoFuel, and Investissement Quebec; and adding to the initial $13m Series A funding raised a year ago. Barrere comments: 'We are pleased to see the confidence from our investors in our game-changing solution. The fact that we have secured our investors' commitment, even in these uncertain times, underscores the opportunity to enable an innovative way to conduct very specific research into a wide range of topics and across a global sampling base.'

Web site: www.potloc.com .