DataSift lands $15 million to help enterprise firms find sense and order among social data

DataSift, a social data platform company, announced that it has just raised $15 million in its Series B round from Scale Venture Partners, Northgate Capital, and Daher Capital. With this latest infusion of capital, the company says it’ll focus on expanding its reach across more customer groups and geographies.

Lots of interest towards big data

With tons of data floating around in social spaces like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn, companies are eager to find a way to derive value from what people are sharing online in order to leverage it for their gain. Whether it’s using services like gnip, Dataminr, Crimson Hexagon, or any other data service, there are businesses eager to help you figure out your data.

In DataSift’s case, its Series B investment highlights that there are firms that believe it has the potential to standout amongst all its competitors. Indeed the latest influx of capital more than doubles the $14.7 million it raised over its seed and Series A rounds, which saw investment from GRP Partners, IA Ventures, and several others

Rory O’Driscoll, the Managing Director at Scale Venture Partners said the company is “at the intersection of two huge trends: social and Big Data. [It’s] built a real-time platform that allows customers to sift through billions of tweets, posts and internal corporate data to find the insight they need for their business…”

The company said that because of Scale Venture Partners involvement, it will now be able to utilize their experience in enterprise companies such as Box, Vitrue, ExactTarget, and HubSpot.

Many forms, but always focused on data

Previously incarnated as Fav.or.it and TweetMeme, the company has undergone some significant pivots, but always remained focused on the aspect of user data. When it launched as Fav.or.it in October 2007, it was a next-generation RSS aggregator designed to curate content and leveraged Twitter as a key data source in 2008.

Later on in 2008, the company shifted and launched TweetMeme, a service piggybacking on the Twitter ecosystem and was considered a “real-time search company”. After selling TweetMeme to Twitter, it pivoted once again into its current form, DataSift.

Now, the company has access to millions of sources, including many of the leading social networks. It can curate data from across different brands, businesses, financial markets, news, and public opinion.

Here’s TNW’s video interview with Datasift co-founder Nick Halstread, filmed last year.

Photo credit: Rowell Dionicio/Flickr