A growing public relations technology startup has acquired Atlanta-based social influencer database Insightpool. TrendKite, a five-year-old startup out of Austin, TX, announced the acquisition of Insightpool last week for an undisclosed sum.
Insightpool was started in 2012 by a group of serial Atlanta entrepreneurs and initially funded by a group of Atlanta area angel investors such as Peter Kight of Checkfree, Steve Chamberlain, and Hawks CEO Steve Koonin. Their Universal Search platform acts as the “Google for Influencers,” a searchable database of influencers in any conceivable industry from all over the world. The startup’s clients include Coca-Cola, UPS, TOMS, NBCUniversal and more.
TrendKite uses AI and data analytics to analyze how public relations activities — earned media in the form of newspaper, magazine and other published articles — affect a brand’s reputation, traffic and customers. Clients include such names as Nike, Google and Delta.
“That kind of journalist coverage is still important, but the world now gets their news from many different places,” says Insightpool CEO Devon Wijesinghe. “This is where Insightpool comes in with a database of social media influencers, allowing PR professionals to find and pitch both traditional journalists and social influencers.”
The two companies were aware of each other’s activities and even had some customers who used the products together.
“In fact, [TrendKit’s CEO] Erik Huddleston started thinking about partnering with Insightpool when a customer showed him how they were using TrendKite and Insightpool side-by-side, literally open in adjacent browser tabs,” Wijesinghe says. Once a mutual advisor introduced the two executives, “things just clicked.”
TrendKite also simultaneously announced the acquisition of Union Metrics, a social intelligence platform. The three companies will immediately begin integrating their offerings, allowing communications teams to access a full suite of earned, paid and social media tools.
Insightpool and Union Metrics will both continue their current operations and maintain their offices, and Wijesinghe says the Atlanta office has “aggressive growth plans.”
