New Funds for Online Qual Firm Discuss.io

In the US, online qual firm Discuss.io has raised just over $5m in a Series A round of funding, led by Unilever Ventures and Pereg Ventures. The investment will be used to further develop the firm's platform and expand its engineering and sales teams.

Seattle-based Discuss.io provides an online platform for real-time qual market research and focus groups. Using a massive pool of respondents, the firm enables users to target their desired niche and get answers at any time on a variety of market research questions, from product development and optimization to brand and segment exploration, plus testing for advertising, package design and web concepts.

Unilever is a client of the firm, and last August its venture capital and private equity arm Unilever Ventures led an $800k investment in Discuss.io, having previously led a round in the Spring totalling $1.4m.

Founder Zach Simmons (pictured) comments: 'Using Discuss.io, companies can reach consumer audiences all over the world, conduct one-on-one interviews, and have relevant, targeted insights within days. The market research industry is ripe for a big change. Securing this latest round of financing will allow us to democratize market research, and make it easily available and affordable for everyone'.

Web site: www.discuss.io .