Greek survey startup Pollfish raised $6.4 million in a funding led by EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development) Venture Capital Investment Programme, the startup announced.
“We are thrilled to announce that we have reached a significant milestone – we recently raised a $6.3M Series B round of financing led by EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme and have expanded our client base to now include a number of new relationships with enterprise clients”, stated Pollfish team in the announcement published on their website.
According to the company, the fund will be used to expand the publisher network, to better meet the needs of their clients and to build out their team. Given the radical disruption on the traditional Market Research market, as the startup states in the announcement, Pollfish is set to further innovate its services in order to meet the needs of modern marketers and their agency partners, providing unparalleled data quality and speed, at a significantly lower cost.
Founded in 2013 in Athens and New York, Pollfish has created the world’s largest mobile consumer survey network, reaching over hundreds of millions of smartphone users to get data and insights. The company creates a survey online in minutes, and gives results in hours.
According to the company data, Pollfish today is present in more than 160 countries and its services are available in more than 24 languages, and in less than three years it has expanded from 120 million consumers to 475 million.
Lately the startups is improving its targeting capabilities, as researchers are now able to target geo-location using very specific criteria, such as the postal code and the market. The startups is also working on new features that will improve the quality of its data, reduce downtime and facilitate a more efficient end-to-end process.
To date, Pollfish raised close to $9M from European VCs, including EBRD VC, Odyssey Venture Partners and PJ Tech Catalyst.
The EBRD Venture Capital Investment Programme on the other hand is a €100 million facility dedicated to direct equity investments in early and growth-stage technology companies. By championing these businesses, the EBRD aims to encourage international venture capitalists to enter the region and foster a VC financing ecosystem. The investments send a signal to international investors that innovative drive and entrepreneurial spirit are in strong supply in the EBRD’s region.
New executives to the team
Besides the new round of funding, the startup also welcomed new members to the team.
“To capitalize on these new features and ensure we continue our rapid growth pace, we have added new executives to the team as well as a new board member”, explained Pollfish’s team in their announcement.
Following the EBRD funding, the EBRD VCIP team member, Zaya Kadyrova is joining the Pollfish Board of directors.
Zaya comes from abroad advisory experience in the technology, media and telecom sectors in EMEA. Previously, Zaya was a TMT investment banker with Morgan Stanley based in London, where she focused on the internet, online classifieds, media and digital media clients, having worked on a range of deals such as private placements, IPOs, and leveraged buyouts. Additionally, she has extensive experience advising and mentoring start-ups in the UK. Zaya holds an MBA from INSEAD.
Addition to the team is also Michael Harbolt, Kyle Gollins and Him Follett, all of them well-known veterans in their field of expertise.
Michael Harbolt has great experience in digital media and financial services companies worldwide and he joined Pollfish in January as new VP of Marketing. Harbolt resume spans leadership positions at Macmillan, Bloomberg, and The Financial Times. On the B2B side, he brings expertise in securing highly effective and low-cost solutions (like Pollfish) to meet business objectives.
Kyle Gollins is with 18+ years of experience in the market research industry. Gollins comes from Research Now, a global leader in digital research data. His specialties include ad effectiveness measurement, segmentation, and brand tracking. He is appointed as a VP of Sales in Pollfish.
Jim Follett is a marketing information service operating veteran who is joining Pollfish following his great marketing experiences gathered in four major brands such as Kraft, Procter & Gamble, and Nestlé. He is joining Pollfish as an Independent Board Director.