Sysomos Raises Seed Financing

"GrowthWorks is excited to invest in Sysomos because we believe it has leading-edge technology to provide companies with intelligence and insight about what happening within the world of social media," said Tim Lee, senior vice-president, investments with GrowthWorks.

TORONTO - Dec 19 2008

Sysomos Inc. is excited to announce it has raised seed capital from GrowthWorks Capital Ltd. and Ontario's Investment Accelerator Fund to support the commercialization and sales of its leading-edge social media analytics technology.

“Having GrowthWorks and the Ontario Centres of Excellence as investors is a major stepping stone,” said Nick Koudas, Sysomos’ president and chief executive. “It provides us with the financing needed to accelerate our growth and, as important, we have attracted strategic partners who can provide the company with valuable strategic advice and insight.”

Sysomos provides a powerful suite of software services that bring business intelligence to social media. Using contextual text analytics and data mining technology, the company is focused on helping companies effectively and quickly listen, measure, understand and engage with the fast-moving social media landscape.

Sysomos's powerful technology delivers the next generation of social media analytical services to clients such as public relations agencies, marketers and corporations looking to manage major brands.

Sysomos' business intelligence software suite, which was in development for three years, features access to billions of conversations collected over the past three years from blogs, social networks, micro-blogging services, forums, wikis, message boards, video sites and media sources with a robust analytics engine.

GrowthWorks made its investment through the Commercialization Fund, which was created to achieve long-term capital appreciation by investing in a portfolio of small and medium-sized Canadian businesses.

"GrowthWorks is excited to invest in Sysomos because we believe it has leading-edge technology to provide companies with intelligence and insight about what happening within the world of social media,” said Tim Lee, senior vice-president, investments with GrowthWorks.

“The social media analytics market is quickly evolving, and we're confident Sysomos is well-positioned to become a leading player.”

In December, Sysomos was among eight Ontario companies that received financing from the Investment Accelerator Fund, which invests in an early stage seed fund managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) designed to help Ontario-based start-ups and early stage technology companies.

Sysomos technology features:

• A comprehensive and spam-free archive, featuring billions of conversations (and counting) dating back to 2006
• Continually updated content from blogs, social networks, micro-blogging services, wikis, message boards, video sharing sites, and news sources
• Geography and demographic (age, gender, profession) information
• Automated sentiment to assess if conversations are positive, negative or neutral
• Text analytics to identify key themes, emerging topics and trends
• Measurable metrics about popularity, geographic/ demographics, and authority
• The ability to drill down into particular demographics and conversation topics
• The ability to compare your reach, share of voice and brand impact against competitors

About Sysomos:

Sysomos delivers technology that brings business intelligence to social media. We’re focused on helping companies effectively and quickly listen, measure, understand and engage within the fast-moving social media landscape by providing them with leading-edge analytics services. Sysomos provides companies with robust technology to access billions of conversations collected over the past three years (and growing) from blogs, social networks, forums, wikis, message boards, video sites and media sources. With more than 500 million people actively engaged in creating online content, the Toronto-based company offers the insight and intelligence that corporations, marketers, public relations agencies, advertisers and campaign managers need to make smarter business and strategic decisions.
www.sysomos.com


About GrowthWorks:

GrowthWorks(TM) managed funds provide investment capital for Canadian companies and tax-advantaged investment opportunities for Canadian investors. GrowthWorks manages more than $900 million in assets through the Working Opportunity Fund (EVCC) Ltd., GrowthWorks Atlantic Venture Fund Ltd., GrowthWorks Commercialization Fund Ltd., GrowthWorks Canadian Fund Ltd. and ENSIS Growth Fund Inc. GrowthWorks identifies, analyzes and structures investments in companies with high growth potential. Particular emphasis is placed on IT, Life Sciences and Advanced Manufacturing sectors. Building on over 15 years of investment expertise, GrowthWorks is a leader in Canadian venture capital management.
www.growthworks.ca


About Ontario Centres of Excellence:

The Investment Accelerator Fund is early stage seed fund managed by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE) that is designed to help Ontario-based start-up and early stage technology companies bring their products and services to market. In addition to critical seed investment that is often challenging for early stage companies to secure, the IAF provides access to valuable services such as market research and business mentoring through the Business Mentorship and Entrepreneurship Program.
www.oce-ontario.org

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