Insightpool, an Atlanta-based social influencer database that helps brands expand their social reach, has been acquired by TrendKite, an Austin digital PR firm that uses AI and big data to analyze and improve the reach of public relations campaigns.
In addition to the Insightpool acquisition, TrendKite also acquired Austin-based Union Metrics.
“People get their news from many different sources in today’s digital and fragmented media world. As a result, marketing and communications professionals must add social influencers to their target list of traditional journalists,” Devon Wijesinghe, CEO of Insightpool, said in a statement. “TrendKite is the ideal organization for Insightpool to combine with to execute our shared vision for the future of earned media and PR. Together we create unparalleled distribution, targeting and measurement to truly create the new era of earned media.”
Insightpool was founded in Atlanta in 2012 by Adam Blaschke, Adam Lewites and Adam Wexler, according to Crunchbase. The startup was one of the first to join the Atlanta Tech Village in 2013.
The company has has a database of more than 750 million social influencers and helps brands expand their social reach. Clients Insightpool serves include the Coca-Cola Company, UPS, NBCUniversal, DocuSign, TOMS and Airwatch by VMware.
Union Metrics was founded in 2009 by Hayes Davis and Jenn Deering Davis. Initially it created a Twitter report product called TweetReach. The founders moved to San Francisco in 2010 and began growing a social analytics company before returning to Austin.
Both of the acquired companies will stay in their respective offices in Austin and Atlanta.
In a related move, TrendKite reported $16.7 million in equity funding and other securities that are tied to the acquisitions and stock purchases.
In January, TrendKite announced a $11 million round from New York City-based Harmony Partners. That brought TrendKite’s total funding to $46 million since its founding in 2012---bringing its total amount of funding raised to about $62 million.
TrendKite’s software uses AI to analyze millions of news articles each day and generate a variety of analytics to help companies learn more about the effectiveness of their PR campaigns, the effect of earned media and compare competitors’ coverage.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to reflect the nature of the SEC filing for $16.7M in funding.
