Ranker Raises $2m to Explore Crowdsourced Data Use

Consumer voting web platform Ranker has raised $2m from new investors, which it will use to hire new staff, for marketing purposes, and to explore potential business uses for its data.

Founded in 2009 by entrepreneur Clark Benson (pictured), Ranker's platform is used by crowds to vote on their favorite item in a list - such as the 'best athletes in history', 'worst movies of all time' or the 'best lip gloss'. The firm has nearly eight million users and around 80 million monthly page views.

Through this platform, Ranker collects individual user votes and tracks them across various lists, while also performing factor analysis to determine user voting trends. In addition, the firm is building an 'opinion graph' to show how different opinions are linked to each other - ie, people who like the show Modern Family also like Heineken 400% more than other beers. This graph uses what the firm calls 'Gallup-sized samples', rather than trying to map the interests of every web user.

To date, Ranker has raised a total of $5.1m and its latest funds come from new investors Lowercase Capital, BullPen Ventures, and Data Collection, along with previous backers Draper Associates, Rincon, Venture Partners, Siemer Ventures, TenOneTen, Tech Coast Angels, and Pasadena Angels.

Web site: www.ranker.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.