Relative Insight secures £4 million Series A to boost US expansion strategy

A ‘language understanding platform’ developed in the north of England, Relative Insight, has secured a £4 million investment in its Series A funding round. Relative Insight will use the investment from Maven Capital Partners, a leading UK private equity and alternative asset managers, to open its first US office in New York City and continue development of its AI-driven platform.

Founded in 2012, the platform’s leading technology was developed through a 10-year R&D project with Lancaster University, designed to help law enforcement detect language distinctions in online chat rooms. Today, Relative Insight’s intelligence is applied in market research and customer experience optimization, helping companies better understand how to communicate with their audiences.

According to IDC, the world will create and replicate 163ZB of data by 2025, of which a significant amount is unstructured language data. Relative Insight helps B2B and B2C companies better understand their audiences through comparative linguistics by analyzing unstructured and undefined data sets such as customer feedback, social media, online product ratings and reviews, web page copy and market research surveys.

Headquartered in Lancaster, United Kingdom, the company has seen traction in the US market working with leading advertising and marketing agencies including R/GA, McCann, and VMLY&R.

Ben Hookway, CEO of Relative Insight, said: “Our value proposition is simple. We help companies address the immense challenge of analyzing unstructured language data, which is growing at a rapid pace. With our platform, we’ve seen huge success in helping companies quickly and accurately gain value from their existing data and provide analysis that results in significant business insights— a process that historically has been done manually. Expanding into the US market is the next logical step for the growth of our business.”

The technology platform compares language sets to detect linguistic and attitudinal differences between consumers and brands as well as language differences over time.

Dave Furlong, Investment Director at Maven, said: “Relative Insight has developed an innovative, industry-leading platform using cutting-edge linguistics analytics. It’s a fascinating sector and the team has a range of industry experts able to support the company’s ambitious growth plans.

“Today’s transaction is a great example of Maven’s private client funds working alongside the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund to support a local business with a flexible funding package to enable it to grow globally. We look forward to working with Ben and the team as the business embarks on an exciting program of growth.”

‍