London-based Signal Media raised £5.8 million in Series A funding led by MMC Ventures, Frontline Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures and Local Global. The company utilizes artificial intelligence to sift through news.
The company aims to compete against media monitoring competitors through AI that monitors news stories, judge a news source and determine if the news is relevant.
Companies use Signal Media’s services to find false or negative stories to take appropriate actions against the stories to minimize their impact. Signal Media’s service tracks broadcast, print and online media. The company tracks all metrics in real-time.
Competitors, regulators and reputation can be tracked. Signal Media is developing tools to track changes to financial regulations and tax in real-time.
The funding round will allow Signal Media to expand its current workforce, which stands at 50 people.
Information sources that Signal Media scours includes 300 broadcast channels, 67,000 print feeds and 2.7 million websites. Titles are translated into 40 languages to help companies find news in different languages written about the company.
The company’s AI engine can be trained to recognize changes. Users can search for topics and themes to follow and monitor, too.
Signal Media’s initial seed investment was announced on April 1 and was led by Frontline Ventures, Reed Elsevier Ventures and other investors. The company grew quickly from a garage office to employing 50 people and attracting new talent and management.
Brandon Mensinga joined the company as COO. Luca Grulla was added to the team as VP Engineering. Barry Collings from Twitter is also part of the Signal Media family.
The company’s CEO and founder David Benigson stated, “It’s been an amazing journey for me personally. I’ve learned so much about myself in the last three years, but my goal is the same – to continue making Signal into an impactful, global company. I’m so grateful to my team, our investors, and all the Signal users who have supported us along the way.”
