Brand damage happens fast on social media. And that means a kernel of new information -- true, false or just kind of misleading -- can quickly become part of a company's reputation.
Austin startup New Knowledge has positioned itself on the front edge of those social conversations, pledging to monitor and verify the authenticity of social chatter about brands. And on Tuesday it announced it raised $3 million of addition funding from Austin-based BuildGroup and Menlo Park, Calif.-based Lux Capital to help it build out a new enterprise platform later this year and add new talent to its team.
It has now raised a total of $18 million since its founding in 2015.
While the company was perhaps best known early on for its detection and reporting of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, the startup's growth largely hinges on its roster of big private businesses, which it doesn't name.
"Our customers are high-profile, Fortune 100 consumer brands that need need to know what's real and what isn't online," New Knowledge founder and CEO Jonathon Morgan told Inno via email. "We help our customers save money and make better communications decisions by scoring the authenticity of conversations about their brand and identifying the online groups that are trying to undermine their brand integrity."
He also sees New Knowledge's push for authenticity in social media discourse as part of a larger overall movement toward verifiably authentic conversations.
"First the internet was searchable, then it was social, and now it needs to be authentic," he said. "I believe information integrity will be one of the defining issues of our generation, and I feel privileged to work with an amazing group of people who are passionate about solving this problem."
Using AI, New Knowledge's software scans social discourse for brand mentions and helps identify whether the conversation started with an authentic account or perhaps one created by a competitor or disruptor, and whether those messages have been amplified with a paid boost that might spread the information to other influencers.
New Knowledge grew from five employees two years ago to its current 50-person headcount. The team is based in an office in the Omni Building at 7th and Brazos. But it plans to move to a larger space across the street next month to help accommodate its growth to 65 employees by the end of the year. It's hiring for positions in customer success, marketing, sales and engineering.
Mogan said the new funding, which the company doesn't consider a formal round, stemmed from a relationship New Knowledge built with BuildGroup founder Lanham Napier, who connected with the company through Techstars when Napier was a mentor.
“New Knowledge is precisely the type of company with a modern business model that we look to partner with,” Napier said in a news release. “Their technology offers insight into how a brand is being discussed and potentially manipulated online, and we think provides the next generation of tools for companies to manage their brands and customer networks."
