Funds for 'More Research, Faster' Firm Attest

London-based Attest, whose platform promises clients the ability to do a lot more market research, quicker, has secured a further $3.1m in funding.

The latest round was led by Oxford Capital, and Episode 1, with more coming from existing investors including former Which? Chairman Paddy Barwise. the new money will be used to roll out the full version of Attest's platform, and expand its offering to new sectors and use cases.

The company was founded in mid-2015 by Jeremy King (pictured) and Tony Hunter, launching out of beta a year later. Last July it appointed former Google exec Ali Syed as Chief Commercial Officer.

King says that 'All organisations strive to be constantly customer-centric and data-driven, they're just lacking a way to actually do it', and believes the existing big names in research 'lack the speed, power, efficiency and reach to support modern companies with ever-expanding research needs'. Attest's platform allows users to design a survey in minutes, pick out a target audience, and expect answers back in a matter of hours. Surveys are set up to take 'no longer than 7 minutes for a respondent to complete, the optimum time before response rates drop off', and aim to play on five emotions the firm says increase participation rates: 'contributing, learning, enjoying, rewarding and feeling valuable'.

King says Attest is 'a very new approach to research and insights, using a very technical approach that we make very simple for clients, and fortunately it's working very well so far'.

The company is online at www.askattest.com .