Friday, August 26, 2011

Buzzient brings in $1M in first funding

By Rodney H. Brown

Boston-based startup Buzzient Inc., a provider of social media analytics for marketing, has closed on a first institutional round of funding. The company brought in $1 million of a planned $1.4 million round, according to federal documents.

Spun out of the Center for Digital Business at MIT in early 2008, Buzzient uses artificial intelligence software developed in collaboration with Google Inc. Buzzient would analyze millions of online conversations about trends sells the information to companies. According to the Buzzient website, the company's software-as-a-service platform is applicable to any enterprise looking for social media data.

The filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission did not disclose the names of the nine backers in Buzzient’s first financing round, and the only individual listed as a related person to the financing is CEO Timothy Jones, who has his own investing firm, TBJ Investments LLC.

Buzzient counts on its website as customers and partners companies like Oracle Corp., Williams-Sonoma, Pace University, Airbus and The Motley fool, among others. In July of 2009, Buzzient was listed as one of Mass High Tech’s “Startup Watch: Five you should follow” companies.