Trufan, which helps companies market to niche audiences, has purchased audience analytics firm SocialRank to bolster its position as a social intelligence platform.
Swish Goswami, Trufan’s 22-year old founder and CEO, said that the combination will bolster his company’s quest to be the world’s foremost audience analytics platform. The two-year old Canadian company provides a forum that helps brands build communities of fans. Trufan raised an additional $400,000 from Round13 Capital, a Toronto-based venture Capital firm, to help it buy SocialRank.
“Whereas Trufan focused on fan engagement and has a deeper view on a customer’s audience, SocialRank is the best-in-class product for audience segmentation and has a priority on filtering/comparing audiences,” Goswami said in a statement.
Trufan has raised over $1.3 million in under two years and worked with clients that include Western Union, K-Swiss, Supreme Cannabis, and Kay Jewellers. It develops marketing initiatives that reach consumer communities through social media.
Private equity so far this year has raised $32.5 billion for deals in Trufan’s media and information services sector, according to Pitchbook data, topping te $23.5 billion raised last year.
Trufan purchased SocialRank’s business, brand, assets, and customers, and will continue to run it as an autonomous unit. SocialRank has developed audience segmentation software for social media, and gained high-profile customers such as the NBA, NFL, Netflix, Samsung and L’Oreal.
SocialRank’s six-person staff won’t be heading to Trufan as part of the deal. The team will remain together and work on a professional social network called Upstream, that’s aiming to take on LinkedIn. SocialRank founders Alex Taub and Michael Schonfeld will remain as advisors to Trufan.
“It is still in beta and not ready for primetime yet, but Upstream is a new social professional network,” Taub said in a statement. “We are reimagining what a professional network would look like, built today for your phone.”
- SocialRank was started in 2014 and raised $2.1 million from Rainfall Ventures and other backers before becoming profitable in 2017.
- The acquisition will position Trufan to be a cash-flow positive business in December and to grow swiftly next year, the company said.
