Pursway grabs $6m to help find companies social influencers

Social networking is filled with people who like to talk. While a majority of the online chatter is simply noise, some individuals, for reasons that vary, have networks of friends, family and colleagues that listen, trust and act on their recommendations. These individuals are known as social influencers. Helping to locate and utilize these social influencers for marketing campaigns, Pursway(formerly Datanetis) announced today that it has secured $6 million in a first round of funding to expand its services in Europe and North America.

Pursway leverages consumer customer databases to target individuals that belong to similar social circles and who have made recent purchases that are followed by those individuals. These identified social influencers can then be targeted for specific marketing messages and campaigns to increase the chances of a return on investment. The company claims to offer a five to 10 times improvement in as little as three months using its patent-pending algorithms and specialized marketing techniques.

[aditude-amp id="flyingcarpet" targeting='{"env":"staging","page_type":"article","post_id":159192,"post_type":"story","post_chan":"none","tags":null,"ai":false,"category":"none","all_categories":"business,entrepreneur,social,","session":"A"}']

According to Ran Shaul, Pursway’s Co-Founder and EVP Customer Solutions, there are typically a small percentage of social influencers (7-15%), but they impact as much as 70% of purchase decisions. By targeting them, consumer companies have a greater chance of marketing effectiveness and acceptance.

Pursway claims customers in the retail, travel, finance and hospitality sectors as well as two major telecommunications providers, including Orange and Vodafone Group.  Several companies are also leveraging data driven social analytics for consumer companies, including Media6 and Lotame.

The round of funding, lead by Battery Ventures, will help to establish a new Waltham, Mass. headquarters in the U.S. and a London office in Europe. According to Mass High Tech, the company is looking to hire an additional 10 to 15 people to its 30-person team and was cash flow positive before the round of funding.