News analytics and predictive monitoring platform Newswhip has raised $13 million (€12.1 million) in funding to fuel its growth plans and boost its product, increase its engineering team and grow overall staff numbers by more than 50 per cent in the next three years.
The investment comes from London-based AshGrove Capital.
Founded in 2011 by Andrew Mullaney and Paul Quigley, Newswhip’s main business is in tracking the spread of news stories and narratives across the web and social networks, using its technology to predict the stories that are likely to go viral.
Among its clients are Google, The New York Times, Samsung and the BBC. In January it signed a deal with social media platform Meta that extended Newswhip access to the social media platform’s fact checking partners who review and rate viral misinformation for the company.
“We’re excited to bring AshGrove Capital on board as investors,” says NewsWhip CEO Paul Quigley. “Their team recognises the transformation underway in the communication profession, and the unique position NewsWhip has in enabling that transformation. We share a vision where NewsWhip is the real-time eyes and ears of every sophisticated comms department in the world.”
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The company is expecting to increase staff by about 50 per cent by 2024. At the end of December 2022, Newswhip employed 71 people, up 18 per cent over the year. In its most recent accounts available from the Companies Office, for the year ended December 31st 2021, Newswhip had 55 staff. Annual revenue for 2022 was $10.6 million, a significant milestone for the company.
The funding brings to almost $25 million the total amount raised by Newswhip to date.
“The challenges NewsWhip helps solve for their customers are becoming more topical for global organisations and critical for real-time responsiveness,” said Ilkka Rantanen, co-founder and partner at AshGrove Capital.
“Our investment perfectly aligns with the company’s technology-led approach to offer a unique and innovative solution in a growing market, and we look forward to supporting the company to further enable communication professionals to be more focused, prepared and reactive to global news events.”
