Dublin content analytics firm NewsWhip has announced a $6.4m Series A funding round led by Tribal Ventures, with participation by The Associated Press, clients of Cantor Fitzgerald, The Asahi Shimbun and existing investors.

Current investors in NewsWhip include Enterprise Ireland, Matter VC, Social Starts, and AIB Seed Capital Fund, administered by DBIC.

Cantor Fitzgerald acted as corporate finance advisor to the company and utilised the EIIS scheme “as part of an overall private equity offering to achieve a very robust solution for the company,” the advisor stated.

NewsWhip said the investment will go towards further developing NewsWhip’s technologies, which are used today across the media, marketing, and public relations sectors to predict trends, spot influencers and develop editorial strategy.

NewsWhip said it plans to expand its Dublin and New York teams with new hires in product, machine learning, commercial strategy, marketing and sales.

In Association with

Publishers, marketers and brands, including the BBC, the Washington Post, Edelman and MasterCard, use NewsWhip to create data-driven editorial agendas, marketing plans, and communications strategies. Its technology analyses millions of stories, social media posts and videos every day and to spot what's trending online and in social media.

Hard Data

Paul Quigley, CEO and co-founder, said: “Across the media ecosystem, NewsWhip is replacing hunches and guesswork with hard data and predictions. Each minute we’re matching content and stories with the people who need to know about them. Our long tail data helps shape editorial strategy at the most important media outlets and brands.

“As we’ve grown, so has our ambition. We now recognise how much work we have ahead with integrating bigger datasets, demographics and core machine learning capabilities. We’re grateful to have such smart and sound backers aboard and backing that long term ambition.”

AP’s Jim Kennedy commented: “The Associated Press uses NewsWhip tools every day, and that tool-set keeps expanding. We’re excited to be a part of that growth. From trend-spotting to historical analytics, NewsWhip is providing an essential view of the social news ecosystem.”

Conor Stanley of Tribal Ventures described NewsWhip as “a pioneer in the emerging Content Intelligence market”. Mike Edelhart, managing partner at Social Starts, paid tribute to Quigley, a one-time solicitor. “Paul has done a marvellous job of leading the company to this milestone,” he stated.

Hiro Nozawa of The Asahi Shimbun said: “We had been looking for the leading company which generates innovation to media industry by cutting-edge technologies. NewsWhip's technology is the best way for us to catch the earliest signals of breaking stories and emerging trends around the world. We're going to use NewsWhip's technology for our content distribution. We also would like to develop the Japanese market with the NewsWhip in the future.”

Photo: Paul Quigley (right) and co-founder Andrew Mullaney