GraphDive (http://www.graphdive.com), a startup that uses Facebook Connect data to give businesses a better understanding of their online visitors, has raised $2 million in new funding.
Co-founder and CEO Shahram Seyedin-Noor said the company allows website owners to do more with the social data that's already provided by users who log in to their sites via Connect. It analyzes a user's account activity and infers their interests and key demographic data — age, income, education, and relationship status. (In its effort to build an "interest graph" connecting related interests, Seyedin-Noor said GraphDive could be compared to Gravity, except that Gravity is focused on publishers (http://techcrunch.com/2013/02/01/gravity-launch/)).
So far, the company offers three services that take advantage of that data, one for segmenting users into different groups, another for delivering personalized recommendations to those users, and a third for Facebook ads targeted at new users that are similar to the most valuable of a businesses' most existing users.
How accurate is the analysis? Well, you can test it out yourself by logging in to the GraphDive site (http://www.graphdive.com) and seeing what the system infers about you. That's what I did, and demographically, on three out of four counts, it pegged me correctly — the only incorrect inference was that I'm married. It also provided a list of my interests, which started off accurate and gradually became more shaky. Overall, it seemed to paint a pretty solid picture of who I am.
It's clear how this could be useful to businesses, but what about consumers? Well, Seyedin-Noor argued that GraphDive is "the anti-spam company," because it allows users to see content, recommendations, and ads that are actually relevant to them, and because those users have opted in by signing up for a particular site through Facebook Connect.
Seyedin-Noor added that the company, which he founded with Sina Sohangir in 2011, has seen 10x growth in terms of daily API usage in the past three months. Customers include Walmart and Lyft.
The new round was led by Start Capital and angel investors including Pejman Nozad, Ullas Naik, and Naguib Sawiris. Previous investors (GraphDive raised a $1 million convertible note last year) include Crosslink Capital, Correlation Ventures, and Plug & Play Tech Center. Future plans include adding new platforms, such as Twitter and Google+, and other languages.
Update: An earlier version of this post confused the initial backers with the investors in GraphDive's new round.
(http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=2mJPEYqXBVI) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=7Q72WNTAKBA) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=yIl2AUoC8zA) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?i=lp_MsfAk6nA:KVWp4s8qrKI:-BTjWOF_DHI) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?i=lp_MsfAk6nA:KVWp4s8qrKI:D7DqB2pKExk) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Techcrunch?d=qj6IDK7rITs) (http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Techcrunch/~4/lp_MsfAk6nA)
TechCrunch